Actual malice.
Reckless disregard for the truth.
And, no, Fox, you can’t just claim that you were simply reporting on Trump’s “stolen election” claims.
And, no, Murdoch, you can’t say that Fox did not endorse and promote this proven falsehood, and that it was only individual Fox anchors who embraced and advanced The Big Lie. You’re the boss, Rupert. Your anchors are the face of your operation. Your anchors ARE Fox. You knew they were lying. And you did not intervene. You did not put a stop to it, although you made statements in your deposition that you knew you should have. You knowingly permitted your anchors to go rogue. That makes their willful untruths the “official” position of Fox News. That’s not only professional negligence, it’s the biggest and most damaging act of corporate treason in American history. You lit the country on fire. You fanned the flames. Like deranged arsonists, you then gleefully stood by and watched as your handiwork burned our institutions to the ground. You literally fueled and supported an attempt to overturn a free and fair election and overthrow the government of the United States. It was nothing short of that.
That’s the “t-word.”
Forget Dominion’s defamation suit. That’s a wrap.
Under American media law, the bar to win a defamation case is set higher than a Chinese spy balloon. But in this case, it has been cleared with plenty of head room
Let’s go through the checklist. In order to win a defamation suit, plaintiff has to prove that defendants:
- Lied. Check
- Knew they were lying. Check.
- Persisted in lying, even after they knew they were lying. Check.
- Failed to retract the lies. Check.
- Inflicted actual damage to plaintiff. Check.
- Acted with actual malice. Check.
Checkmate.
This suit is a layup. And media defamation suits are virtually never layups.
This ought to make you as angry as anything you have seen in our country in your lifetime, regardless of your age.
But the Cultist Sheep who most need to learn this painful lesson will never even enter the classroom. They will continue their cowardly, insulated allegiance to Fox, to the exclusion of facts. And Fox will continue to lie. Because lying is at the core of Fox’s “business model,” and will be as long as Fox is in business. (Hey, a boy can dream, can’t he?)
Here’s the Fox version of “The dog ate my homework,” alibi.
“Our viewers made us lie. They forced us to lie. If we didn’t lie and keep lying, we’d have lost the farm to Newsmax. What the hell were we supposed to do?”
You were supposed to tell the truth. Because you knew the truth. And you never stopped lying. They lied to you. And now they’re blaming you. That ought to piss you off.
