Dominion Voting Systems wins again:
Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle one of the last outstanding defamation lawsuits against a news organization for airing false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems — the same voting-technology company that had received a $787 million settlement from Fox News over its election coverage — brought the lawsuit against Newsmax. A trial was scheduled to begin in October.
In the lawsuit, filed in the months after the 2020 election, Dominion accused the cable news network of spreading false claims that the company’s voting technology had been manipulated to help Joe Biden beat Donald Trump. Like other right-wing news networks, Newsmax featured Trump allies who promoted these conspiracies, including former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and supporter Mike Lindell of My Pillow. [NPR]
Regardless of who you were cheering on in Dancing with the Stars the 2020 Presidential Election, the matter of media honesty, which was poorly exhibited by Newsmax and Fox News, should be of vital importance, and the loss in court by both sites should be a signal of a potentially existential rot in the right-side media, no doubt motivated by offers of potential wealth by their audience – and possibly others.
One losing in court can be overlooked as perhaps a bias in the judge, but both losing – indeed, Newsmax settled and is paying in installments, while Fox News settled and I think paid in a lump sum, but I could be wrong – suggests a confirmation of a pus-filled wound in the right’s side.
It’s worth meditating on the implications of a settlement. I see two mutually exclusive interpretations:
- The offer from the adversary is so small that it’s not worth the litigation. The fact that Newsmax is paying in installments suggests this interpretation is invalid in this case.
- The requested damages is so large, and the guilt of the defendant so inarguable, that paying a settlement, even one that announces to the world your shameful guilt, is the better option.
I’ll take #2. Fox News and Newsmax should be changing out their management and other responsible parties. I doubt we’ll see that.
There have been similar, if of lesser magnitude, accusations of the mainstream media, and the left. Both sides need to remedy the situation.
