The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner will draw loads of attention for the celebrities who show, the jokes that Joe Biden tells and the shtick that Roy Wood Jr. uses in his routine.
09.04.2023 - 22:05 / variety.com
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor As Fox Corp. prepares to fight a looming and high-profile defamation case, it has agreed to settle another. The company, which owns Fox News, has reached a confidential agreement to resolve a defamation case levied against it by Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil that alleged Fox News and former host Lou Dobbs had harmed Khalil’s reputation by stating he and three others developed programs and machines to rig the 2020 presidential election. “This matter has been resolved amicably by both sides. We have no further comment,” Fox News said in a statement after being contacted by Variety. A letter filed Saturday to Judge Louis L. Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York informed authorities that the parties in the case “have reached a confidential agreement to resolve this matter. The parties anticipate filing a joint stipulation of dismissal with prejudice early next week.”
In the case, initially filed in 2021, Khalil alleged that comments made by Dobbs in 2020 on Fox Business Network and on Twitter that suggested he was “COO of the election project” in which officials from Venezuela conspired with voting-technology firms Smartmatic Inc. and Dominion Voting Systems tried to make sure President Donald Trump lost, harmed his reputation. Dobbs also said Khalil was “a liaison with Hezbollah” who “executed an electoral 9-11″ and a “cyber Pearl Harbor” against the United States, according to his initial complaint. The 2020 presidential election was not rigged, according to multiple officials, but Fox’s Dobbs amplified statements made by Trump aides like Sidney Powell, an attorney for the former president who saw her media profile widen after she rattled off
The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner will draw loads of attention for the celebrities who show, the jokes that Joe Biden tells and the shtick that Roy Wood Jr. uses in his routine.
rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an attempt to prevent the results of the 2020 election from being certified.The ad flashes through images of several Republican politicians associated with the far right, including U.S. Reps.
surprise firing of the channel’s controversial opinion host Tucker Carlson.“Conservative media and the conservative movement are very effective. They’re rich, effective, successful, thriving enterprises,” Maddow said during her show as she addressed what Carlson’s shocking departure means for conservative media.
President Joe Biden is running for reelection. He made it official in a video released Tuesday morning, exactly four years after he tossed his hat into the 2020 race.In the three-minute video, Mr. Biden repeated some familiar themes, saying, «When I ran for President four years ago, I said we are in a battle for the soul of America — and we still are.
Joe Biden has confirmed he will run for re-election next year. The video can be seen below.
Joe Biden made the official announcement on Tuesday that he is running for reelection.
settled its $1.6 billion defamation case against Fox News for $787.5 million, did not have any influence on Fox and Carlson’s decision to part ways, people with knowledge of the situation tell TheWrap. Dominion has already collected its payout from Fox News and had no comment on Monday’s development.Carlson was a centerpiece of Dominion’s defamation suit, but his role was less as a provocateur and more as one of the dissenting voices internally disparaging the network for indulging the 2020 election conspiracy theories of Donald Trump and supporters Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. has put increasing amounts of money behind news and sports in recent years. But that doesn’t mean the company is completely free of drama. A landmark $787.5 million settlement made Tuesday between Fox and the voting-technology company Dominion Voting Systems does not end what is likely to be a period of tumult for the owner of Fox News Channel and the Fox broadcasting network. The payment to Dominion to keep an explosive investigation into how Fox News disseminated conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election out of the public sphere does nothing to alleviate another wave of scrutiny likely to come from another, similar lawsuit.
Sophia Scorziello editor Fox settled its Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit for $787.5 million, but the network’s litigators submitted several clips from “The Simpsons” to be shown in court, had the case gone to trial. Each of these scenes show Homer Simpson voting in a presidential election, as NBC reported: — Season 20’s “Treehouse of Horror XIX” shows Homer attempting to cast a ballot for Barack Obama.— The promotional short “Homer Votes 2012” shows him voting for Mitt Romney.— The YouTube short “Homer Votes 2016” features Russian President Vladimir Putin disguising himself as an American voter and trying to convince Homer to vote for Trump.— Season 32’s “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” finds Homer unsure whether to vote for Trump or Biden.
About 15 minutes after the surprise settlement with Fox, Dominion’s lead attorney Justin Nelson stood before a horde of reporters waiting for any details on how the case was resolved.
Fox has admitted telling lies, the company CEO John Poulos says in press conference.Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch had been scheduled to be among the first witnesses in the trial, which legal analysts said was tilted heavily against the media company.
Fox News has settled Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned organization, averting a lengthy, expensive and certain to be embarrassing trial.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corporation and Dominion Voting Systems agreed to settle a much-discussed $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit mere hours after a jury had been seated to consider the matter in Delaware’s Superior Court. Attorneys for the two sides had been set to deliver opening statements to the jury. But that activity was delayed Tuesday after Judge Eric M. Davis called for a lunch break. “The parties have resolved their case,” the judge said. The legal case had already generated intense scrutiny, with documents, emails and texts from senior Fox executives and well-known Fox News anchors and hosts all suggesting many people at the company knew they were disseminating conspiracy theories around the 2020 presidential election and Dominion Voting’s role in it.
First Amendment implications.Fox is accused of defaming Dominion’s immediately following the 2020 presidential election, when some of the network’s guests and hosts suggested that the Denver company’s voting machines had been hacked or compromised. The network has stridently denied any wrongdoing, saying it was merely reporting what was being said by newsmakers – including Donald Trump and his shrinking circle of lawyers, including Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani – who were pushing the unfounded claims.Dominion scored a series of early victories in discovery and pre-trial filings, from embarrassing revelations about behind-the-scenes discord at the network’s promotion of zany election conspiracy theorists down to the sloppy “discovery misconduct” of Fox’s lawyers on the eve of trial.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The greatest show Fox News may ever put on is about to start. Imagine a Fox News program that utilizes the talents of the no-nonsense news anchor Bret Baier along with those of the opinion host Tucker Carlson. One that also puts anchor “The Five” mainstays Dana Perino and Jeanine Pirro into the mix, along with business anchor and commentator Maria Bartiromo. One that features possible appearances by Fox News executives like Suzanne Scott, the CEO of the operation, and Jay Wallace, its top news executive. A program that tops it all off with a potential cameo by Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, two of the controlling shareholders of Fox News’ media-conglomerate parent, Fox Corporation.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Brian Stelter is getting ready to write a new chapter in his ongoing analysis of Fox News Channel. The former anchor of CNN’s “Reliable Sources” is gearing up for “Network of Lies: The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for American Democracy,” a look at the Fox Corp. cable outlet’s trajectory following the 2020 election and through the much-scrutinized defamation trial brought against it by Dominion Voting Systems. That court proceeding is slated to open Monday. “Network of Lies” is billed as a sequel of sorts to Stelter’s 2020 book “Hoax,” which offered a deep look behind the mechanics of how Fox News Channel produces its news coverage and opinion programming. Stelter’s new book proposes to examine how Fox News proceeded after the election of President Joe Biden and how it oriented itself after President Donald Trump left office. The book, published by One Signal, an imprint of Simon & Schuster’s Atria division, is scheduled to debut in November of 2023.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A judge overseeing a much-scrutinized defamation trial brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News and its corporate parent has admonished attorneys for the media company several times this week in preliminary hearings and suggested Wednesday he may appoint an outside monitor to ensure Fox isn’t withholding evidence. Judge Eric M. David of Delaware’s Superior Court suggested Wednesday that he might appoint a special master to probe whether Fox lied about withholding evidence after Dominion attorneys made a presentation about materials not given to them in the discovery process that they believe are warranted. There were also claims made that Fox Corp. declined to acknowledge that Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of Fox Corp., was also an officer of Fox News — a detail that would affect what kinds of materials Dominion could obtain.
Fox News has reached a settlement with Venezuelan businessman Majed Khalil, who filed a defamation lawsuit over a Lou Dobbs tweet and broadcast linking him to rigging the 2020 presidential election.
UPDATE: CNN cut away from Donald Trump’s post-arraignment at Mar-a-Lago shortly before it ended, with anchor Anderson Cooper calling it a “reprise of every grievance” by the former president.
UPDATED: Rupert Murdoch and Ann Lesley Smith are no longer engaged, Deadline has confirmed, only weeks after news that the two were planning to tie the knot this summer. Smith was set to be wife No. 5 for the media mogul and chairman of Fox Corp.