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We are left with two questions, 1) what is the incentive for the plaintiffs to settle? (I don't see any) and 2) How will Murdoch and his on air minions convince the faithful that this is all the fault of Biden and the Democrats?

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Ironically, the judge pointed to Tucker Carlson's failed attempts to substantiate the crap that Maria Bartoromo and other Fox talking heads were spewing as evidence that Fox News knew, or should have known, that the "rigged" claims were nonsense. It's that "knew or should have known" standard that yanks the rug from beneath the feet of Rupert's lawyers. Once again they will be reduced to acknowledging that Fox News is not a news op in any sense, and instead is a purveyor of rightwing agit prop.

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founding

I am the only person who immediately thought of Bush and Cheney’s WMD lies when Putin’s biolabs lie was made public? They accused Saddam of not only having nukes but also chemical and likely biological weapons as a pretext for invading Iraq.

This is off topic but I just read another article about the religious aspect of this war. Our media has given very little attention the ways the Russian Orthodox Church has enahnced Putin’s power. (The current leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, was an active KGB agent as was his predecessor.) The Russian Orthodox leaders are furious that the Patriarchate of Constantinople formally recognized the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as separate from the Russian Orthodox Church and are very supportive of this war.

https://religiondispatches.org/in-his-forgiveness-day-sermon-a-slightly-more-sophisticated-globohomo-rant-kirill-lays-out-an-authoritarian-vision-in-which-his-version-of-god-might-dominate-and-rule-the-h/

Our media has a habit of shying away from negative stories about religion.

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"That right-wing void was quickly filled by players like NewsMax and OAN..."

FauxNews has since demonstrated that they cannot allow interlopers from the right to push in on their market share of willing sheep, desperate to believe their lies and to click on their ads. To defend their profit margins, they have out-outraged NewsMin and ONAN to retain their lock on the minds of woefully under-educated American consumers of infotainment.

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I'm assuming the Murdoch's and the brass at Fox News simply ignored what their own lawyers were telling them. I can't imagine a lawyer that wasn't just a partisan to not realize what they were doing would put the company in jeopardy. Like Republicans and the right in general, it seems that Fox News got caught up in being dickish trolls. The attitude that everything a jerk says is OK because deep down they knew it wasn't true which to them means it's "just a joke".

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This is the only good news I've read in quite awhile.

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I'm a big fan of this story... Wherein one of FauxNew's biggest on-air personalities takes it personal that someone calls out his lies on air:

https://www.sfgate.com/national-politics/article/Greg-Gutfeld-Ukraine-take-refuted-on-The-Five-16989879.php

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This Murdoch story bundled with the Merrick Garland interview on NPR that reading between the lines, made it sound like the DOJ investigation into Trump is really happening, is what I will take into this weekend as something positive for a change. We all need some good news.

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Murdoch has what? 90 billion? I doubt he cares too much about settling out or court for a few billion. Justice in America is easy to avoid when you have money. Sadly.

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I'm a bit confused. Are you implying that the Murdoch Family itself is being sued or Fox News corp or both?

If it's Fox News Corp, then this will be like the Sackler family.

The Sackler family's businesses took a hit but they personally came out financially whole, considering.

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Regarding the lawsuits and the possible penalties, I will believe it when it happens. The power of money to get what it wants should not be underestimated. Take a look at Jonathan Pies rant on how Russia owns Britain. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/3/11/2085278/-Follow-the-money-Jonathan-Pie-rants-about-Londongrad-and-the-Russian-money-flooding-it?_=2022-03-11T07:21:56.000-08:00

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When there's a completely amoral and delusional cult of personality in power, that does not excuse the news media from reporting the truth, but of course outlets such as Fox, Breitbart, OAN and Newsmax have exempted themselves from responsible journalism. Murdoch apparently believed Fox is too big to be taken down, that his idea of combining ruthless capitalism and the philosophy of "if there's an audience for this crap, let's dish it out" would always work. I'm all for the First Amendment, but it was never intended to allow sociopaths and cult leaders to spread what is essentially propaganda and outright lies.

Murdoch would be a fool not to settle. These two companies have every capability of ruining Fox to the tune of billions, but even a settlement is likely to be huge. And what comes after? A huge loss of profits spurred by a loss of advertisers and hopefully, a loss of viewers. It's long overdue.

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Finally some good news. It’s tome to take Fox News down!

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I pray to God that Dominion and SmartMatic DO NOT settle and that they take it all the way. My wish is that Fox is mortally wounded as an organization. In lieu of that, I would accept Murdoch suffering a devastating stroke from the stress of the litigation.

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In addition to suing Fox, I believe the plaintiffs are also suing the individual on air employees. Is Murdoch and company going to cover their lawyer’s fees or are those liars on their own?

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“Refusing to let itself be outflanked on the fringe-right…” ( Nice )

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