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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   33054 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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I don't see how Tucker Carlson could have been fired over the Dominion Lawsuit because he wasn't the one pushing the allegedly defamatory allegations. They were mostly on Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo's shows, and Bartiromo still has a job.

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.

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.

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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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