I first noticed this phenomenon in 1974, with Evel Knievel's Snake River Canyon jump. We heard about it for months, and then the rocket misfired and...I think it was the same day Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon. Nixon had resigned, that was momentous, there was talk about a trial but we were still caught up in the reverie of his exit when Ford cut us off at the knees and left a sour taste in our mouths. If you weren't of age back then you have no idea how big the Watergate story was. Not only did they write a book about it, "All the President's Men," they made a first class movie based on the book. Everybody knew the story, it dominated. Does everybody know about the Fox/Dominion suit? What it was about? All the information that came out in discovery? No. Because you can't reach everybody anymore and falsehood rules. You make up your own news today. And that came out in the aforementioned discovery, Fox was afraid of alienating its viewers who believed the "Big Lie" which Fox knew was a complete lie in itself. The lunatics have taken over the asylum. Not only on the right, but the left too. No one trusts the government, no one trusts institutions. People trust their friends and what they read online more than a traditional news outlet. "Mainstream media" is a pejorative.
Not that the mainstream media is perfect, far from it, but at least this is their business, news. The people pontificating about the efficacy of vaccines are not doctors, other than a few quacks. Ditto on climate change. And you can always find some cockamamie site supporting your opinion online. And even educational institutions have been undercut. They're too woke. They're controlled by the rich left. When in truth you get quite a fine education at an elite college. But now the word "elite" has a negative aura.
So we had Elon Musk and Twitter. Last year's story. What was gonna happen in the Delaware court, was he going to be forced to buy it? We had endless screeds on the inner-workings of the Delaware legal system. And then it didn't come into play.
However there does seem to be a contrary example, with Elizabeth Holmes. She got convicted and it appears she's going to jail. Chalk one up for the little people. The woman who said she was too pretty to go to jail is going to be an inmate.
So...
If you're on the right you may be unaware of the Fox/Dominion lawsuit. You may actually believe that Dominion rigged the election for Biden, even though this is patently false. Ultimately Fox News did post today's story on its website, but it's not the headline, and needless to say Fox ends up looking good.
And it was never about the money to us, the hoi polloi, we wanted the truth to come out, we wanted everybody to know what Fox did and what its personnel said. We did not want it buried.
But Dominion is owned by a private equity firm, and they're all about the money. They wanted two things. For Dominion's voting machines to be declared inviolate, as in they did not throw the election for Biden, and to get a ton of cash.
As for the cash... When it comes to defamation, libel laws...there is a standard and it's nearly impossible to reach. The company must have stated the falsehood with actual malice, as in they knew what they were doing. And truth is an absolute defense. So if what the Fox people were saying about Dominion was true, there would have been no lawsuit.
And it may seem like a no-brainer to you, but except with today's Supreme Court, the law is based on stare decisis, i.e. what the previous cases have determined, and there are not a ton of cases in the defamation area, meaning a victory for Dominion was not guaranteed. Furthermore, Fox did not want a decision, they wanted libel law to remain somewhat vague, a case could change the landscape, just like the "Blurred Lines"/Marvin Gaye lawsuit changed copyright law. Under the law, "Blurred Lines" was not infringement. It had the same sound and feel as Marvin Gaye's song, but the criterion used to be the same notes. So now copyright law is blurred, and acts and record companies are uptight about infringement in a way they never were before.
So, if Fox lost at trial, there could be a weakening of protection in libel law. And Fox does not want this, it wants to act with impunity.
Can it continue to perpetrate falsehoods? Well, one thing we know for sure, we're not sure exactly where the line is.
As for the money... The truth is Rupert Murdoch is not that rich. Compared to the techies. Less than a billion dollars is a drop in the bucket to Elon Musk, and he's not the only one in that category of wealth, far from it. But Rupert has more than money, he who controls the narrative ultimately wins. That's been Murdoch's game from day one, that's the news business. And irrelevant of what Musk said in the run-up to his purchase of Twitter, he now sees it as a news entity, and he wants to personally control the narrative, by whim. But the truth is Twitter is bigger than any traditional news outlet, which makes everything Musk does news. So we have to keep hearing about Musk and Twitter every day in the news.
Assuming one reads the news.
Those on the left were out for blood. They wanted to put a stake in the heart of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, and Tucker Carlson too. But this was not a governmental action, this was a private civil suit. The goals of Dominion don't necessarily align with those of the public at large.
So, Dominion emerges with its image and a boatload of cash.
As for Fox... Well, there's a bit of a chilling effect, then again, the law already says you shouldn't knowingly state falsehoods. And this case shows that it takes a ton of bread to sue Fox, and if it thinks it's got a chance of losing, it will settle, probably at the last minute.
As for Fox viewers... They can believe whatever they want to. There's no law against that. And many still believe that the election was stolen, that Trump really won. Meanwhile, every educated thinking person, even those at Fox itself, knows this is hogwash. But that's the world we now live in, perception trumps facts. And anger the lowest common denominator at your peril.
Now the truths that came out in discovery are important, the record has been established. Fox lied outright. And continued to do so.
But the trial was a big nothingburger. And unless you work for Dominion or Fox, ultimately the lawsuit didn't affect you at all. Either you're a believe in the "Big Lie" or you're not, either you think Fox News is heinous or it is not.
Sure, we can talk about a cumulative effect.
But I'd be more worried about the right's war against the legal system and the metropolis than Fox possibly lying outright again.
In other words, the ball didn't move much.
We can't even understand the game anymore. Baseball lost touch with the public and they instituted new rules, like the pitch clock, and they made the bases bigger. Politics? We've got an outright liar in Congress, and he's going to run again. Never mind the purely ignorant. You've got to pass a test to be a driver, maybe we need one to be an elected official, never mind to own a gun.
And public financing of campaigns would go a long way towards changing the playing field, but that ain't never gonna happen, because in truth money wants influence.
All you can do is watch D.C. and throw up your hands. It's like school council.
So...
I'm gonna tell you right now, what you're looking forward to is probably going to be a disappointment. Especially when it's on a grand scale, national. The hype is too long in a world where instant is everything.
So, the end result is we're all turning inward. Everybody believes the game is rigged. DeSantis talking about building a prison by Disney World...nobody wants this, not only Disney, but its devotees, the general public. Its just a personal war. Petty.
And you feel like you have no power. Sure, vote. It can make a difference, but in truth all elected officials want is to stay in power and make money, altruism can't even be seen in the rearview mirror anymore.
And consensus is impossible. This is what the internet has wrought.
As for California and New York City... If you don't want to live there, that's fine. But I don't want to live anywhere other than Los Angeles. I don't mind the taxes. Nor the high costs. Because you can get an abortion and there are some gun laws and the state cares about the environment and the regulations protect me, the nobody who doesn't want to die in an earthquake when the building collapses.
Rail all you want, you're not going to get me to move.
I want to be at the epicenter of the entertainment business. I know Amazon ships everywhere, but you can't see first class theatre everywhere, for that you have to go to New York.
If you want to live in the hinterlands and are a big proponent of stand your ground laws, that's fine. But it's not what I want. And you're never going to convince me otherwise.
So it turns out so much is noise. The Fox/Dominion lawsuit. Musk and Twitter. Even Ticketmaster. A lot of blabber and ultimately there's no change.
As George Carlin famously claimed, save yourself. That's the modern era, what you do, see and say is important, the rest is just chaos, juggling for position. Fight if you want to, but most people are sick of fighting, they just want to live their lives. We're worried about the future, but we seem to be powerless to stop the insanity.
And that sucks.
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