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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Dominion v. Fox News Trial Will Not Be Televised: "It's a Gift to Fox News"
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/fox-dominion-trial-televisedNo paywall
https://archive.is/T7jS5
The trial for Dominion Voting Systems $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News, which legal experts are calling the most consequential defamation lawsuit in decades, is set to start Monday. The verdict will decide whether Fox News will be held accountable for spreading 2020 election liesconspiracies that were fundamental to Donald Trumps Big Lie. It could be the only time the likes of Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch will be forced to answer for the outlets democracy-damaging coverage in a public setting. Some of the networks top stars, like Tucker Carlson, are also expected to take the stand. Its worth watching live. Except, unless youve made the trip to Wilmington, Delaware, and managed to get a seat in the courtroom, you cant.
The trial will not be televised. The only way Americans will be able to know whats going on inside the courtroomoutside of getting one of the roughly 200 seats available in the courtroomwill be by calling into an audio line provided by the court. Its better than nothing, but its not much better, says Columbia Journalism School professor Bill Grueskin. Grueskin recalls his experience listening to the audio line for Sarah Palins defamation case against The New York Times last year. You cant tell whos talking half the time, especially when the lawyers start arguing a point, or you come into the testimony part way through, he said.
Not only will the trial not be televised, the court has banned any recording or rebroadcasting of the audio feedhampering outlets abilities to playback the proceedings on the radio or TV. A group of media outlets, including the Times, CBS, ABC, NBC, and ProPublica, wrote to Judge Eric Davis seeking to record the audio stream of the trial, and to use excerpts of those recordings in their news programming. But Davis denied that request Thursday during a pretrial hearing, as the Associated Press reported. He said hed gone as far as I can go with response to access, and, signaling the Delaware Superior courts traditionally restrictive rules over public access, that the outlets were getting the most access of any media in a Superior Court case in Delaware. Foxs lawyers filed an opposition brief to the media outlets letter, which, in a statement to Vanity Fair, Fox called an 11th hour request that risks compromising the integrity of the trial proceedings. Dominion Voting Systems declined to comment.
Its a gift to Fox News that this is not going to be broadcast live, because it spares them from the nightmarish scenario of the visual of some of their leading anchors being cross-examined and confronted with their own texts, which are contrary to what theyve said on air, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig tells me. In the lead up to the trial, internal communicationsobtained through the discovery processhave spilled out into the public, offering a damning look at Fox executives and stars dismissing unfounded claims and unreliable Trumpworld sources behind closed doors. Sidney Powell is lying, Carlson wrote in one private message, of the conspiracy-peddling Trump lawyer whom Fox repeatedly booked during the post-election period. Fox Newss attorneys appear aware of the power and stakes of live testimonies; they have actively tried to keep Rupert Murdoch off the stand, citing hours of deposition he already gave.
*snip*
This is just wrong.
intrepidity
(7,397 posts)If ever a court proceeding NEEDED to be public, this is the one!
Outrageous!
brooklynite
(95,157 posts)...and they don't change because one particular trial is "really important".
intrepidity
(7,397 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,922 posts)I can live with audio only, but forbidding media outlets from rebroadcasting?
How can you put something out there publicly, and forbid the media from using it?
patricia92243
(12,607 posts)Initech
(100,174 posts)blogslug
(38,031 posts)(774) 258-6500
From this link: https://courts.delaware.gov/superior/pdf/PublicNoticeRegardingAccessToDocumentsAndDocket.pdf
Court begins Monday, April 17th at 9:00AM EST
per this link: https://courts.delaware.gov/forms/download.aspx?id=185428
Beachnutt
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