Dominion Gets Paid: Yet Money Cannot Repair the Damage to Democracy

An entire party starts with the assumption that an election is rigged.

On Tuesday, the day scheduled for the long-anticipated blockbuster trial between Fox News and Dominion Voting System was scheduled to begin, Deleware District Ct. Judge Eric Davis issued a highly unusual order. He appointed a special master to review Fox News’s documents to determine whether Fox News held back any evidence directly relevant to the trial. In other words, as the trial was about to start, the judge sent Fox a signal it couldn’t possibly ignore. Based on a series of incidents in which Fox News didn’t produce important evidence, Fox faced a trial overseen by a judge that didn’t trust the company.

It is impossible for outsiders to determine if the appointment led directly to the settlement. But the timing cannot be ignored. It took 90 minutes for Fox to agree to a settlement which also included Fox admitting that it allowed damaging lies.

Rupert Murdoch will cut a $787.5 million dollar check. Justice for Dominion. But that doesn’t mean that Fox paid the full price for its actions. No, not even a fraction.

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II. Incalculable Damages

America now has a party - a minority party, but a large dangerous party - in which a majority now assumes that elections are rigged. Or, to be more accurate, when Democrats win, the election was rigged and stolen. Republican victories, which Democrats don’t challenge, are always correct and righteous.

This assumption is utterly ruinous to a democracy. Anyone who has followed this newsletter knows that I’ve focused almost singularly on the fact that democracy in America is hanging by a thread.

Fox News is far from being the only cause or the most important cause. No, Trump’s continued claim that he won and the election was stolen is, clearly, the most damaging element. Trump pounded the country just two days ago with the type of statement that is most damaging. (He wrote the original as one paragraph in all caps. I broke it up in an attempt to keep your eyes from exploding:

IF FOX WOULD FINALLY ADMIT THAT THERE WAS LARGE SCALE CHEATING & IRREGULARITIES IN THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, WHICH WOULD BE A GOOD THING FOR THEM, & FOR AMERICA,

THE CASE AGAINST THEM, WHICH SHOULD NOT HAVE EXISTED AT ALL, WOULD BE GREATLY WEAKENED. BACK UP THOSE PATRIOTS AT FOX INSTEAD OF THROWING THEM UNDER THE BUS.

& THEY ARE RIGHT! THERE IS SOOO MUCH PROOF, LIKE MASS BALLOT STUFFING CAUGHT ON GOVERNMENT CAMERAS, FBI COLLUDING WITH TWITTER & FACEBOOK, STATE LEGISLATURES NOT USED, etc.

Fox News is $787.5 million dollars poorer today because, for a period, it wrongly reported (with knowledge the claims were false) that there were Dominion voting machines switching votes from Trump to Biden as part of the “steal.” Fox and Trump claimed (at the time) that the voting machines played a major role in the “steal.”

This former President with a hammer for a brain thinks Fox’s salvation rides an admission that Trump won.

A stunning number of Americans still believe Trump and believe that Fox News was originally correct. Fox was just “spooked” by the lawsuit.

The result is a massive blow to American democracy.

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Dominion’s lawyers correctly noted that the settlement is the first time anyone has been held accountable for the lies told after the election and that it sends a strong message across the country.

They certainly mean well.

But the impact of this settlement will do little to change the MAGAs’ beliefs regarding a stolen election. For one, the discovery phase, in which Fox emails and texts poured sunshine on Fox’s modus operandi, and the settlement pre-trial was either ignored by Fox News, or partially reported. Fox News, is the one place where the typical MAGA might see and understand.

Fox even prohibited their media analyst from covering the run-up to the lawsuit:

Kurtz said on his show in February that Fox was not letting him cover the lawsuit “at least for now,” but has since commented on the ongoing legal battle, saying in March that the lawsuit was a “major test of the First Amendment.”

Management prevented any real coverage on Fox and when it did, it came in the form of a grossly misplaced statement. The case was not a “major test of the First Amendment.” The seminal issue was whether Fox knowingly (with malice) reported news it knew to be wrong and did so anyway because ratings would suffer if they didn’t.

I mentioned that the lawsuit required Fox News to apologize. It did not require Fox to apologize on air. Nor did the settlement require the primary offenders (Tucker, Hannity, Ingraham) to apologize on air.

While MSNBC and CNN reported on the biggest story of the day, Fox News reported on Trump’s indictments. The message cited by Dominion’s lawyers will not find its way into the MAGA mind.

Summary:

Dominion is made whole. Justice won out. Fox refused to risk a jury’s hammer and the news that would come out in the trial.

To be sure, Fox News isn’t out of the woods, it still faces liability from the Smartmatic suit.

But no lawsuit will make the country whole or bring about justice for the hammering blow to democracy in America. Fox reported facts they knew to be wrong because they determined ratings mattered more than accuracy. To the extent that American democracy suffered a near-fatal blow, so? Ratings equal money.

Ratings. The MAGAs didn’t want to hear anything opposing their truth. The MAGA’s personal truth led directly to January 6th. They still believe the election was stolen.

I return to Trump’s statement, in part:

THEY ARE RIGHT! THERE IS SOOO MUCH PROOF, LIKE MASS BALLOT STUFFING CAUGHT ON GOVERNMENT CAMERAS, FBI COLLUDING WITH TWITTER & FACEBOOK, STATE LEGISLATURES NOT USED.

The bolded words are the most dangerous. The Supreme Court might soon let State Legislatures loose to determine the winner of an election without any court oversight. Republican State Legislatures, many of them super-majorities as covered last week, will still believe in their hearts that the election was stolen, in large part because voting machines are unreliable.

This will result in “irregularities” justifying a legislature’s investigation initiated to prove that the Republican won, or - just as effectively, that the election was so “irregular,” with “so many questions,” including faulty voting machines, that “force” the legislature unable to determine the true winner and not send electoral college voters.

Such an action would render a “winning” Democrat unable to reach 272 votes in the Electoral College. The election goes to the House of Representatives, with one vote per state. Wyoming is as powerful as California. Republicans win. This, despite a possible popular vote win by 10 million. (My prediction for the next election.)

Unfortunately, the damage to American democracy cannot be made whole with a check. It cannot be made whole while Tucker Carlson remains on the air. And it most certainly cannot remain whole if the Supreme Court sets the minority loose in state legislatures and Donald Trump remains involved in American politics.

Sorry to be so repetitive. American democracy is on a ventilator and a malpractice suit won’t do a damned thing.

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My promotion will result in more time for the newsletter as my training period ends. I will be back to 2-3 a week. So, meanwhile, I’ll be looking for the most compelling topics and sharing the concerns with my analysis and yours through email and comments.

Today, we revisit the beach in the town from which our most “distant” reader resides. The reach you allow me is mind-blowing.

Broome Beach in Northwest Australia, 2,075 KM and 22 hr drive NE from Perth may be one of the most isolated places on Earth: