As the details emerged around Dominion and their lawsuit against Fox, I had a brief moment where I thought that truth and sanity might prevail over Tucker and Hannity. But, with a settlement in place the whole debacle has in my opinion turned into a win for the Fox folks. In retrospect I think that Tucker and the rest of the Fox personalities were aware that a settlement was going to be reached, and that they would be spared the agony of being forced to tell the truth in a courtroom. I make that assumption based on the fact that Tucker continued to lie with impunity even with the Dominion lawsuit in place, and so it would seem that he had no concern with his current model of entertaining the base.
Some people might consider an almost 800 million dollar settlement as a loss for Fox. However the Murdoch money managers have already stated that they can and will write off most of the payment to Dominion as an operating loss, and they consider the settlement merely the cost of doing business.
So if I’m interpreting that statement correctly then the average American taxpayer should be mightily pissed. Because that 800 million that Fox is going to write off means the money for highways and aircraft carriers is going to have to come from somewhere else. And my read of the situation is that your average American is going to have to make up the difference in one fashion or another. Maybe with an 800 million dollar cut to the V.A. or to food stamps that Kevin and Marge seem so enamored with.
So, if you peel away all the bullshit, then it appears that your average American in one fashion or another is going to pay the settlement to Dominion.
But Fox stands to win in another way that arguably out does the tax write off. The settlement and the facts surrounding the lawsuit are terrible news for Newsmax and OAN. Organizations who just happen to be the competitors that Fox lost viewers to for daring to suggest Trump actually lost the election. Neither of those organizations have anywhere near the resources that Fox possesses and they are also on Dominions litigation list.
Also, in the effort to cater to the base, both those organizations routinely out lied Fox, and so it would seem the Dominion settlement is a precedent that they should seriously consider as inevitable.
And that could mean bankruptcy for both of them,. And just like that, Ruperts competitor problem goes away, and Fox carries on with a mendacity monopoly. If for some reason, the settlement is less for OAN and Newsmax and they survive financially, then Rupert can still count on the Smartmatic lawsuit to apply the coup de grace to the competition. In fact, Fox can manipulate that outcome by agreeing to a settlement number with Smartmatic that ensures the destruction of their fabrication foes.
And the American taxpayers will foot the Smartmatic cost too. Maybe the Republicans can find another social program to defund to make up the difference. Perhaps the public school system or social security funding can be slashed to make up the next settlement number.
So, kind of a win win for Kevin and Rupert.