Supposedly, the HBO hit show ‘”Succession” is lightly based on the Rupert Murdoch family and his assets including Fox Entertainment While viewers were entertained by the ongoing twists of the Roy family, Sunday night, Fox had its own twist and turns playing out.
The Dominion lawsuit was supposed to begin this morning. The judge, for the trial, announced, Sunday night, that the trial would be delayed until Tuesday. There are rumours circulating that the delay is to give the two parties to negotiate an out of court settlement. The Wall Street journal, another Murdoch asset, reported that,
“Fox has made a late push to settle the dispute out of court,”
Dominion would seem, at this stage, to be less inclined for an out of court settlement. RonNell Anderson Jones, a First Amendment expert and Professor, at the University of Utah, describes the motivations of the two parties, as follows.
“Dominion has seemed quite motivated, throughout this case, to play it out on a public stage and correct the larger record on election denialism,”
“But Fox may be far more incentivized to move closer to whatever Dominion might be asking, after a very rough week of pretrial hearings last week and, especially, in light of the recent revelations from the ex-employee who is now in Dominion’s camp.”
The ex-employee referred to is former Fox Producer, Abby Grossberg.
In all honesty, I have been salivating over the prospect of a trial for the past few weeks. It is true that Murdoch and Fox entertainers such as Hannity have been deposed. It is also true that a number of texts have been released, through the discovery process, showing what these entertainers thought about Trump and his false elections claims. But a trial would give the world an opportunity to see Murdoch, and these entertainers, testify under oath.
My concern is that Dominion might be bought off. Fox may offer a settlement for $1 billion, or so, with the provision that they don’t have to apologize for their lies. While, such an amount might be a drop in the bucket for Murdoch, who supposedly has a net worth of $17 billion, it would probably be a huge financial incentive to settle for Dominion. Dominion has other lawsuits going, as well, Including lawsuits against two smaller right-wing cable networks, Rudy, and, the MyPillow guy. So, those lawsuits may play into the equation, as well. Selfish me hopes that the trial happens.