CNN
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That is it.
The media defamation trial of the century is on the precipice of kicking off in Wilmington, Delaware, in simply days.
Jury choice in Dominion Voting Methods’ monster $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit passed off all of Thursday, with 300 potential jurors being summoned to court docket. Good progress was made and the presiding decide famous that there have been “greater than sufficient jurors” to start out the trial as scheduled on Monday.
It’s there, in Courtroom 7E, the place the most important figures in Murdoch Media, accompanied by a throng of high-powered legal professionals, will try to mount their protection after repeatedly failing to persuade a decide to toss the now-historic case.
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It’s, frankly, extraordinary to jot down these phrases. Once I watched Fox Information broadcast election lies within the aftermath of the 2020 election, by no means did I count on the community to be held accountable in a significant method.
I’ve lined Fox Information for some time now. I’ve watched hundreds and hundreds of hours of the right-wing channel’s programming. I’ve seen its hosts through the years undermine public well being, make gross anti-immigrant remarks, peddle lies and propaganda and push deranged conspiracy theories that have been as soon as reserved for the right-wing’s furthest fringes.
The community has at all times appeared to discover a option to sail by means of the controversy, even essentially the most hellish storms it has confronted. Typically it has emerged even stronger and extra emboldened than earlier than.
However this time is totally different. This time, the traditional methods the community turns to throughout instances of disaster won’t free it from bother. This time, in a court docket of regulation, the community might want to put ahead an sincere, fact-driven argument.
Fox Information is about to enter the true No Spin Zone, the place deception is strictly prohibited. The place it isn’t in cost. And the place its prime executives like Rupert Murdoch and Suzanne Scott and hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity can not merely ignore a request for remark and resort to, as a substitute, attacking “the media” on-air.
On this setting, the place lies can’t be casually instructed and fact can’t be distorted past actuality to suit a dishonest narrative, will probably be fascinating to see how the community fares. If the pre-trial hearings are any indicator, it gained’t be fairly. The case hasn’t even began and the presiding decide has already misplaced his persistence with Fox’s authorized crew and put them on discover.
Maybe the winds will shift for Fox Information when the decide gavels within the trial on Monday. But when they play out like the previous couple of weeks of court docket have, Fox Information is in for a brutal journey.
