Flipping through the state court's denial of Fox News' attempt to have the Dominion defamation lawsuit dismissed.
Three notes.
(1) Judge is skeptical there even is a neutral reportage privilege (he's right to be), but concludes that even if it exists, FNC wasn't neutral.
Three notes.
(1) Judge is skeptical there even is a neutral reportage privilege (he's right to be), but concludes that even if it exists, FNC wasn't neutral.
(2) The fair reportage privilege wouldn't apply to FNC statements that occurred before there were lawsuits to report on.
(IOW, to come within the privilege, you have to be covering actual proceedings, not Powell's on-camera fundraising.)
(IOW, to come within the privilege, you have to be covering actual proceedings, not Powell's on-camera fundraising.)
(3) Judge thinks these are statements of fact (and therefore actionable), but ultimately punts that to a later stage of proceedings.
There's also a section in here where he suggests some of the statements are mixed statements of fact and opinion, which would also be actionable.
There's also a section in here where he suggests some of the statements are mixed statements of fact and opinion, which would also be actionable.
Some of the hosts, I suspect, thought they were more protected simply because they work on the so-called "opinion" side of the network, not the news side.
For legal purposes, however, that is not dispositive.
For legal purposes, however, that is not dispositive.
https://twitter.com/scriban2/status/1471882176794746883
Where FNC really got in trouble for this suit is when Dominion sent them the "please correct" notices specifying all the ways they were getting the story wrong, and their opinion hosts just kept repeating then-known falsehoods.
I am aware of the McDougal defamation suit against Tucker Carlson, in which the court ultimately ruled (incorrectly, I believe) that Carlson's reputation is such that viewers know not to believe what he says.
See old thread:
See old thread:
https://twitter.com/gabrielmalor/status/1309210868694110210
Dominion will have to avoid that "reasonable viewer" problem, and can probably do so by pointing to what came after FNC's election fraud claims: the Jan 6 riot.
IOW, they can point out that, yes, people really believed the false claims.
IOW, they can point out that, yes, people really believed the false claims.
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