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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   33461 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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Could be indirectly. Maybe the settlement pushed Fox to ask their hosts to tighten their belt and/or the leash they're kept on and that didn't sit well with Carlson.

I've heard it suggested that since they were going to have an awful loss in Q2 because of the Dominion settlement it was the best time to pay out Tucker's contract. Firing him in Q3 or Q4 would mean another lousy quarter, at least now they might have a profitable Q3.

This is my theory - that as part of the settlement the hosts have to get permission from lawyers to run stories on certain topics, and that TC doesn't find this acceptable or was denied permission on what he thinks is a legitimately important story.

Reading about Napoleon one starts to wonder why anyone bothered following him after the second or third time he abandoned his troops. I get the same feeling from Trump. Everyone who goes to bat for him ends up getting smashed. His lawyers are lucky if they only get disbarred.

Right wing media has to be terrified that Trump wins the nomination. They’ll be put in the position of either endorsing whatever bullshit Trump comes up with next and risking a lawsuit, or losing their audience.

I don’t understand the defamation risk with Epps. What is his argument? Yes, I did incite J6 and then lied under oath; I didn’t do it as a plant and therefore I’ve been defamed. I’m not a fed; I’m a criminal seems like…an interesting argument.

You seemed to have stolen a base or two. There are no “knowing false system of facts.” For all we known, Epps is a fed and there are many curious things about Epps. The idea that is lying (let along wanton lying) is absurd. That is, it is a tough argument to satisfy actual malice.

And like mentioned, the idea that you defame someone by saying they are a criminal instead of a law abiding fed seems like a crazy argument for defamation generally.

  1. That assumes Epps isn’t a fed or fed informant. Something the FBI hasn’t been willing to say under oath.

  2. Regardless of the truth of the matter, there is a lot of oddness related to Epps. Maybe it’s all a coincidence but there is enough smoke there that it isn’t absurd to (1) believe there is more than meets the eye and (2) not accept Epps claim to the contrary.

If all you need for libel is that the Facts are X, a reasonable person could think it is not X, but it turns out they were mistaken then the media will go out of business.

Now maybe you think it is patently absurd to think Epps is a fed. That seems silly especially given what we already know (feds infiltrate these right wing protests all of the time, police presence did egg on protestors at this event, Epps was curiously dropped from the most wanted despite considerable video evidence of him actively and imminently furthering the whole thing, Epps lied to the Jan 6 committee and they didn’t say boo, Epps has been turned into a martyr by the same people who claim people like Epps are insurrectionists). If it isn’t just beyond the realm of possibility and there was no actual knowledge it is untrue, then Fox is in the clear for the actual malice standard.

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As for knowing, the fact that Epps and his lawyers and the government have been telling Fox he wasn't a fed is pretty compelling, unless Fox is going to try to go to war on a "they're all lying, including under oath" defense, which I doubt they would and would almost certainly fail if they did.

Didn't Epps testify that he wasn't doing things that he is apparently on videotape doing? It seems like there is some valid argument that he has been lying.

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Yeah. He has already lied under oath. Moreover, alleging that someone is undercover and the person claiming “I’m not undercover” is far from proof they are in fact not undercover.

I doubt that any settlement with Dominion would constrain Fox's editorial decisions beyond running stories about Dominion itself (and probably not even then), and I'd find it hard to believe that Carlson has any interest on running such stories.

My theory is that this is more of a blanket requirement for all "controversial" stories to avoid any future lawsuits.

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