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2 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

and so will any of other lawsuits refuse to settle and take the murdochs to the mat?

IANAL, but I'm a firm believer that when you're in a zero-sum game competition, you do what your opponents least want you to do.

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3 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

she nailed the ultimate truth of corporate litigation: never submit your C-suite to deposition for any thing, by any one, at any time

also, she said they had to settle because the idea of tucker carlson under oath for a week televised globally was unpossible

and so will any of other lawsuits refuse to settle and take the murdochs to the mat?

Fox will settle every case.

OAN and newsmax have to take their chances because they don't have the cash to do any settlement. 

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22 hours ago, Blotto said:

 

Dominion is not Google, or Ford, or Amazon with billions in revenue. They have 125 employees on LinkedIn, and probably a few of those don't even work there anymore. So lets say ~150 people total and give them $200K per employee in revenue and that gets them to order of magnitude ~$30 million annually. Its not their job to save democracy. Its their job to stay in business and keep their employees fed. I don't blame them for taking $787 million now vs. waiting possibly 5+ years for some unknown payoff while their business is in limbo. Anyone actually paying attention to what went down knows the score. The hordes of maga fucktards weren't going to change their minds anyway. A trial verdict 100% in favor of Dominion would simply be written off as the swamp/deep state fucking over MAGA yet again. If fat Donnie doesn't say it, they don't fucking care. 

There's plenty about the realities of America today that  pisses me off, but I ain't gonna pin that on Dominion. I'll save my outrage for Biden, Garland, and the dems in Congress standing around jacking each other off about their sick George Santos burns on twitter. Who has more resources for saving democracy, Dominion Voting and their mighty 150 employees, or the DOJ and its 9200 attorneys?  Failure to hold Trump/GQP/Fox etc... accountable will lie at the feet of the democratic buffoons we elected, not some tiny company nobody had ever heard of until last fall. 

I do have a question for the lawyers on this board however. I assume Fox wouldnt agree to any settlement if Dominion mandated that Fox personalities admit/apologize for their fuckery on air. So Dominion takes the money now and Fox clears the first hurdle. But there's plenty of more hurdles for Fox to clear. Could the principals at Dominion and Smartmatic have an undisclosed agreement where they agree to work in tandem (discovery process, sharing intel, trial preparation, etc...)? And more importantly could that agreement also include a split of legal damages?

In other words, Dominion gets their money (a fuck ton of  money) now, not in 5-7 years after who knows how many appeals. So Dominion agrees to give half of that to Smartmatic, and Smartmatic in turn agrees to  share any awards they receive in their suit against Fox. But now with 3/4 of a billion already "booked," team Dominion/Smartmatic can play some fucking hardball. Smartmatic may still agree to a settlement and no trial in round two, but they mandate Fox and their personalities explicitly admit to lying on air. If Fox won't agree to that...." see you in court" and Tucker, Hannity, and Murdoch can admit to it under oath anyway. 

I can see some strategic advantages to an agreement like that, but that seems like it might run afoul of some legal ethics. Would you have to disclose that type of arrangement? Also, I realize that sounds pretty far out there, but ........edibles. 

 

 

I love morons who want to put saving democracy on a mom and pop.  And yes, financially, Dominion is a Mom and Pop.  Sure, go fight for democracy and risk getting zero, then look those people in the eye and say ‘I’m sorry!’.

Anyone who has run any ‘from scratch/bootstrap’ business knows how much your people that got you there mean.  And sure as fuck these people, who were in the same proverbial bunker together for a really  long fucking time.  

I’m positive if Dominion failed all these ‘save democracy’ righteous people would make those employees and their families whole. 🙄

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Well furk. Loses some of its feel good vibes knowing PE might grab most of that. 

Quote

Private-equity firm Staple Street Capital is looking at a massive windfall after Dominion Voting Systems settled a defamation lawsuit with Fox News for $787.5 million.

Staple Street Capital acquired a 76% stake in Dominion Voting Systems for $38.8 million in 2018, just two years before the company was caught in the middle of the 2020 Presidential election, in which former President Donald Trump and his allies falsely accused the voting technology company of rigging results in Joe Biden's favor.

A high-profile defamation lawsuit between Dominion and Fox News, which gave plenty of air time to the false accusations that Dominion rigged the 2020 presidential election results, was scheduled to begin yesterday until a settlement was reached right before the trial's opening statements.

Dominion initially sought $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News, but settled for about half that amount.

Assuming Staple Street Capital's 76% stake in Dominion didn't change since 2018, and that the firm's ownership stake gives it claim to a proportional amount of the lawsuit settlement, the investment firm is poised to see a $598.5 million payout, a return of 1,442% from its initial investment.

 

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Just a mom and pop operation. 
 

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“It’s not every day that an investment fund finds itself at the center of this type of dispute,” Staple Street co-founder Hootan Yaghoobzadeh said at a press conference Tuesday where the settlement was announced. “For us this case has always been about exposing the truth and holding those who knowingly spread lies accountable.”

Yaghoobzadeh founded Staple Street in 2010 with fellow Harvard Business School graduate Stephen D. Owens, according to the firm’s website. Owens was previously a managing director at the Carlyle Group, where he focused on US buyouts. Prior to that he worked at Lehman Brothers in New York and Hong Kong, focusing on merchant banking and M&A transactions, according to a biography on Staple Street’s website. Yaghoobzadeh was a senior vice president at Cerberus Capital Management, focusing on distressed private equity and special-situation investments. He was also part of Carlyle’s US buyout team.

Fox is awful, they needed to lose, f them. But the outcome of “Fox lies and attacks our democracy, but don’t worry, P-E hustlers who made their first millions as Cerberus raiders will make HUNDREDS of millions and really show them!” is why America is really in a terrible place. 

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41 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

I love morons who want to put saving democracy on a mom and pop.  And yes, financially, Dominion is a Mom and Pop.  Sure, go fight for democracy and risk getting zero, then look those people in the eye and say ‘I’m sorry!’.

Anyone who has run any ‘from scratch/bootstrap’ business knows how much your people that got you there mean.  And sure as fuck these people, who were in the same proverbial bunker together for a really  long fucking time.  

I’m positive if Dominion failed all these ‘save democracy’ righteous people would make those employees and their families whole. 🙄

Not only did those people help get them there and 'serve in the bunker.'  Some of them have had their lives threatened by people who are just stupid and just armed enough to do it.  People don't talk about that.  Some of these people have shamed Fox publicly, which means they've made some of their viewers feel ashamed, the ones that aren't so fargone that understand that 'shit, maybe this means Fox did lie to me and I was stupid so somebody has to get beat.'  

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10 minutes ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Just a mom and pop operation. 
 

Fox is awful, they needed to lose, f them. But the outcome of “Fox lies and attacks our democracy, but don’t worry, P-E hustlers who made their first millions as Cerberus raiders will make HUNDREDS of millions and really show them!” is why America is really in a terrible place. 

Cute.  70% of my business is PE owned too because we needed that evil money to grow.  There’s over a hundred people who started with us those first 3-4 years when we had zero and will cash out when we get our exit.  That’s people making 50-500k and all between who after 15 years will get 1-10M and change many lives.  The PE group will do even better.  That’s life.  

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47 minutes ago, ChiTownDoc said:

Cute.  70% of my business is PE owned too because we needed that evil money to grow.  There’s over a hundred people who started with us those first 3-4 years when we had zero and will cash out when we get our exit.  That’s people making 50-500k and all between who after 15 years will get 1-10M and change many lives.  The PE group will do even better.  That’s life.  

That's life, but it doesn't feel good for the "late stage capitalism" crowd who are angry and poor.

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2 hours ago, HamsterHookah said:

That's life, but it doesn't feel good for the "late stage capitalism" crowd who are angry and poor.

That's why we are going to have to eat those folks when the shit hits the fan.  Hope you like the taste of human flesh.

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If we all work together though, we can swap food so that we aren't eating our own relatives.  Nobody wants to eat Memaw.  Well, nobody wants to eat her anyways, since skinny old people have practically no caloric use, but I mean, you just don't want to eat your own relatives, it feels like something they'd do in East Texas, Oklahoma, or Florida.

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40 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

That's why we are going to have to eat those folks when the shit hits the fan.  Hope you like the taste of human flesh.

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If we all work together though, we can swap food so that we aren't eating our own relatives.  Nobody wants to eat Memaw.  Well, nobody wants to eat her anyways, since skinny old people have practically no caloric use, but I mean, you just don't want to eat your own relatives, it feels like something they'd do in East Texas, Oklahoma, or Florida.

 

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16 hours ago, The Dog said:

What they are asking from each:

Newsmax: $1.6 billion 

OAN: $1.6 billion

Rudy and Sidney: $1.3 billion

Lindell: $1.3 billion

Byrne: $1.73 billion

They gonna wreck these fuckers. 

So when Dominion bankrupts OANN (or is it OAN?), Newsmax, pillow guy, and others; Fox News will be the last man standing for the MAGA crowd.

And Fox somehow wins?

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3 hours ago, Underdog said:

Fox still has Smartmatic and their producer to deal with and who knows what happens from within with the Stockbrokers. 

Not only that, but from now on, if Fox News fucks around like they did with the voting machine stuff, it'll be even more lawsuits. The playbook is now out there, and all you have to do is look like you're going to get Murdoch or one of the evening hosts on the stand and Fox News will lose their shit and get out the checkbook.

Alex Jones will have to try and pick up the slack for OAN and Newsmax when they go under.

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10 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Not only that, but from now on, if Fox News fucks around like they did with the voting machine stuff, it'll be even more lawsuits. The playbook is now out there, and all you have to do is look like you're going to get Murdoch or one of the evening hosts on the stand and Fox News will lose their shit and get out the checkbook.

Alex Jones will have to try and pick up the slack for OAN and Newsmax when they go under.

Fox should have some lessons learned about corporate communications going forward that would aid their future cases, if they can implement changes. 

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24 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Not only that, but from now on, if Fox News fucks around like they did with the voting machine stuff, it'll be even more lawsuits. The playbook is now out there, and all you have to do is look like you're going to get Murdoch or one of the evening hosts on the stand and Fox News will lose their shit and get out the checkbook.

Alex Jones will have to try and pick up the slack for OAN and Newsmax when they go under.

Real America’s Voice is about to get a lot more exposure. 

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This isn't going to sit well if you are already upset about the PE angle:

But more evidence suggests that the eye-popping number — which Dominion and its owner still claim as a win — might not be as costly to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire as it might seem. Fox’s stock has barely budged since the deal was announced on Tuesday.

Fox can take a tax deduction from the settlement, Lever News reports. U.S. tax law allows companies to write off at least some portion of settlement fees as part of the cost of doing business. (There are some exceptions, including for cases involving accusations of sexual harassment or abuse with nondisclosure agreements; Fox News has paid out settlements involving those in the past.)

It is unclear how much Fox will save, though a spokesman confirmed that tax deductibility is at play. Lever News estimated that the company could reap as much as $213 million in tax savings.

That’s likely to further infuriate Fox critics, who already thought that Murdoch and his company got off better than expected. DealBook questioned yesterday whether much will change at Fox News post-settlement, given that the network won’t have to make an on-air apology or suffer potentially embarrassing public testimony by Murdoch or stars like Tucker Carlson.

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24 minutes ago, HamsterHookah said:

This isn't going to sit well if you are already upset about the PE angle:

But more evidence suggests that the eye-popping number — which Dominion and its owner still claim as a win — might not be as costly to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire as it might seem. Fox’s stock has barely budged since the deal was announced on Tuesday.

Fox can take a tax deduction from the settlement, Lever News reports. U.S. tax law allows companies to write off at least some portion of settlement fees as part of the cost of doing business. (There are some exceptions, including for cases involving accusations of sexual harassment or abuse with nondisclosure agreements; Fox News has paid out settlements involving those in the past.)

It is unclear how much Fox will save, though a spokesman confirmed that tax deductibility is at play. Lever News estimated that the company could reap as much as $213 million in tax savings.

That’s likely to further infuriate Fox critics, who already thought that Murdoch and his company got off better than expected. DealBook questioned yesterday whether much will change at Fox News post-settlement, given that the network won’t have to make an on-air apology or suffer potentially embarrassing public testimony by Murdoch or stars like Tucker Carlson.

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15 hours ago, cactusflinthead said:

Oh how I want to hear stories of C suite types that refused this advice.

There ain't any in the memory bank because that shit doesn't happen.

787m. Bleed them. 

or death by hundreds of millions of cuts.  

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1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Fox should have some lessons learned about corporate communications going forward that would aid their future cases, if they can implement changes. 

People are going to people and doesn't change the fact that their corporate culture requires cya backup.  

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18 hours ago, YGIFS said:

 

 

Yeah, he walks a really fine line.  In all his inane ramblings in business, on the campaign trail, and in the Oval...he doesn't really ever terribly specific about people or companies.  He mentions them by name and makes vague accusations, but nothing that could ever be construed as defamatory, slanderous, or libel.  I think it's a very potent cocktail-esque gift of ignorance, deftness, and self-preservation.  It's like his brain is capable of making specific allegations but it halts itself and just lets the idiotic majority of his cerebrum take over and do the talking every single time.  He's done it for decades and that's not to be discounted.  It's one of the traits of truly masterful Confidence Man.  Be just specific enough so your mark(s) will fall for the arrangement.  "If you give me x/y/z, I'll give you the specifics/the prize/the asset/the country back."  

You gotta give credit to the man.  He saw in America something none of us did.  

He doesn't though--he uses the system.  He is very specific about witness, judge, vote tampering.  The system says it has to be beyond a shadow of a doubt and he says I was kidding or I said somebody needs to do something about this, not meaning you or now but sometime.  The system very much favors the criminal--they only need one person to express doubt.  

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12 hours ago, 956 Worldwide said:

Just a mom and pop operation. 
 

Fox is awful, they needed to lose, f them. But the outcome of “Fox lies and attacks our democracy, but don’t worry, P-E hustlers who made their first millions as Cerberus raiders will make HUNDREDS of millions and really show them!” is why America is really in a terrible place. 

One of their corporate attorneys used to be married to a friend of mine.  He would travel everywhere by limo, get prime concert passes, yada yada, but the attorney was a huge liberal.  She eventually quit and divorced my friend, but I really should've picked her brain.  Like why would a liberal work for Fox or why would Fox hire a liberal when they openly talk about hating them so much?  Money.  Knew another representing a big corporation fighting the government on charges it was guilty of--the cost of doing business was knocking the bill down to a fine that was well below profits.  She too quit--in the middle of the case.  

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2 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Fox should have some lessons learned about corporate communications going forward that would aid their future cases, if they can implement changes. 

What got them in trouble was the tweets and conspiracy theories on their nightly shows that they were openly pushing or allowing to be pushed about Dominion. Dominion even released a list of the top 20 tweets/video segments that they were going to nail Fox News on. While those internal communications certainly made things easier, Dominion had no idea of the content when they filed the lawsuit - what they had was people on air making shit up about Dominion, while on the ground, none of that was being proven to be true.

If it had been just an isolated incident - like Sydney Powell appearing a few times on one show pushing it, Fox News could have probably played dumb or just said "we're reporting on what one of Trump's former lawyers or experts or whatever is saying" but the anti-Dominion stuff was clearly pervasive across multiple shows over the days, weeks, and moths after November of 2020.

If there had just been a little more pushback from the Fox News hosts, if they had just tossed in a few more disclaimers here and there, they probably don't have to pay out to Dominion. 

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17 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

What got them in trouble was the tweets and conspiracy theories on their nightly shows that they were openly pushing or allowing to be pushed about Dominion. Dominion even released a list of the top 20 tweets/video segments that they were going to nail Fox News on. While those internal communications certainly made things easier, Dominion had no idea of the content when they filed the lawsuit - what they had was people on air making shit up about Dominion, while on the ground, none of that was being proven to be true.

If it had been just an isolated incident - like Sydney Powell appearing a few times on one show pushing it, Fox News could have probably played dumb or just said "we're reporting on what one of Trump's former lawyers or experts or whatever is saying" but the anti-Dominion stuff was clearly pervasive across multiple shows over the days, weeks, and moths after November of 2020.

If there had just been a little more pushback from the Fox News hosts, if they had just tossed in a few more disclaimers here and there, they probably don't have to pay out to Dominion. 

To me, the private texts and calls are the proof that they knew they were lying on camera and did it anyway.  Without that evidence, fox could stand by their on air statements as true to their knowledge or just reporting what they considered to be viable sources. 

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2 hours ago, TheStoicPaisano said:

I’ll smoke one today for him 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-blowhard-dan-bongino-out-at-fox-news

It's just beautiful.  His show, Canceled in the USA, gets...canceled.  Chef's kiss!

“We thank Dan for his contributions and wish him success in his future endeavors,” the network wrote in a statement confirming the end of Bongino’s Saturday evening show, Unfiltered with Dan Bongino, along with his Fox Nation show, Canceled in the USA.

 

 

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44 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

So is this like the NCAA banning the Northeastern South Dakota School for Coal Mining and Automotive Design from post-season play because of something that Georgia or Alabama did?

No, not because of what Alabama did but because they would only sell 5 tickets.  I'm sure it's more to do with ratings than what he says on air.

Ban Bongwater

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38 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

To me, the private texts and calls are the proof that they knew they were lying on camera and did it anyway.  Without that evidence, fox could stand by their on air statements as true to their knowledge or just reporting what they considered to be viable sources. 

Yeah, Fox can spew falsehoods with relative impunity so long as there isn't evidence of actual malice (knowledge of or recklessness as to falsity).

And, even if you verily believe and know in your heart there was actual malice, generating the evidence of it can be tough. And you don't get to go on a fishing expedition to attempt to prove it in most cases.

It was the "backchannel" emails and texts that made that case, not so much the falsehoods.

 

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18 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

What a shittily written tweet / headline. From the source: "Maria Bartiromo & Jeanine Pirro To Be Fired From Fox News As Rupert Murdoch Moves To Be Less ‘Vulnerable’ After $787.5 Million Defamation Settlement, Critic Predicts". From the article: "Byers also indicated that, if the two reporters are not fired from Fox News, Bartiromo and Pirro will be warned to “be careful” regarding risking committing libel in the future.".

 

Ok, so they may get fired. Or they may get warned. Or maybe go fuck themselves.

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