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☆ Tucker Carlson's history of alleged workplace sexism stretches back to 2015, long before Abby Grossberg
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Possible rationales include Murdoch's contempt for Carlson's religiosity and Carlson's insistence on hewing to conspiracy theories about the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Internal correspondence unearthed in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News showed Carlson used sexist expletives to refer to a female Fox executive and a guest. The company last week agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Carlson was one of many Fox News hosts who promoted false election conspiracies, the subject of the defamation suit, on their shows. Fox News is still facing a similar defamation suit from another voting machine manufacturer.

☆ Fox's not allowing Tucker Carlson to say goodbye to viewers is the equivalent of 'execution' says fired CNN anchor
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tucker Carlson's abrupt ousting from Fox News is more like an "execution," according to a fired CNN anchor. "Not being given a chance to sign off is the television equivalent of an execution," Brian Stelter said in Vanity Fair. Yet Carlson, Fox News' top-rated host, never got the chance to say goodbye to his audience, thanks to his sudden ousting on Monday by the conservative media powerhouse. Advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, including Tucker Carlson, adorn the front of the News Corporation building, March 13, 2019. "The takeaway, at least for some TV insiders, is that Carlson was shoved— hard—by Fox management," Stelter wrote in Vanity Fair.

☆ Fox News hosts avoided saying Tucker Carlson's name after he was fired. 'We're not talking about him,' Sean Hannity said.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tucker Carlson was hardly mentioned by his former fellow Fox News hosts after he was fired Monday. Sean Hannity only mentioned Carlson to say "We're not talking about him" and that he had no details. NEW YORK (AP) — The day he was fired, Tucker Carlson was nearly invisible on the Fox News prime-time lineup that he used to dominate. "We're not talking about Tucker," Hannity said, unprompted. Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham appeared close in November 2020.

☆ Watch Fox News tell its viewers that the network has 'mutually agreed to part ways' with star Tucker Carlson
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Edith Honan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

"We have some news from within our Fox family," Fox host Harris Faulker told viewers. "Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have mutually agreed to part ways." "We want to thank Tucker Carlson for his service to the network, as a host and, prior to that, as a long-term contributor," Faulker said. "Tucker Carlson Tonight" debuted in 2016, and the show made Carlson one of Fox's top-rated hosts. In a statement, Fox said: "Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.

☆ Tucker Carlson leaves Fox News in wake of Dominion defamation settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Right-wing prime-time host Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox News immediately, the cable network announced Monday. "FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," the company said in a statement Monday. Carlson's program, "Tucker Carlson Tonight," has long been one of Fox's top rated programs. Carlson, 53, was among the Fox hosts and executives who were questioned as part of the Dominion lawsuit. While the Dominion lawsuit was unlikely to affect Fox's business, it was unclear the toll it would take on its programming and hosts.

☆ Media insiders would often gossip about which anchor was about to leave Fox News. None of them guessed Tucker Carlson.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Dominion lawsuit was an embarrassment to Fox, airing text messages the company would rather have kept private. Tucker Carlson's departure is a huge surprise. Like a plot twist in "Succession," the departure of Tucker Carlson from Fox News is one we didn't see coming. The news of Carlson's departure almost immediately wiped close to $1 billion off of Fox Corporation's market capitalization. Upon confirmation that Carlson had left Fox, veteran media reporter Sarah Ellison simply wrote: "Incredible."

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Fox, Albemarle, First Republic and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Pia Singh | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

People walk by the News Corporation headquarters, home to Fox News, on April 18, 2023 in New York City. First Solar – Shares of the solar company lost 3.2% after a Citi downgrade to sell cited margin risks and concerns that Inflation Reduction Act benefits are already reflected in the share price. Medtronic — Shares added 4% during midday trading after being upgraded to overweight from equal weight by Wells Fargo on Sunday. Sunrun , Enphase Energy — Shares of Sunrun and Enphase Energy were higher Monday after Citi added positive catalyst watches on the solar companies, saying it sees further share gains. The Wall Street bank opened a 90-day positive catalyst watch on Enphase Energy, citing a strong backlog and expectations for record-high margins.

Private equity firm Staple Street Capital valued Dominion at $80 million when it purchased a controlling stake in it in 2018. The Fox settlement was nearly 10 times that amount and far outstripped the $226 million average of four pre-election valuations cited in Fox's court papers. Dominion's damages claim in the Fox case was based upon a report it commissioned from an accounting expert, half of which remains under seal. It is difficult to place a dollar value on the U.S. voting-machine industry because Dominion and its competitors all are privately held. While Dominion's report cites dozens of lost clients due to Fox's coverage, the company still has landed recent contract renewals including in California's Republican-majority Kern County.

☆ Lachlan Murdoch drops defamation lawsuit against Australian news website
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Byron Kaye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, April 21 (Reuters) - Fox Corp (FOXA.O) CEO Lachlan Murdoch dropped a defamation lawsuit against an Australian news site over an opinion piece he said accused him of complicity in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying the defendant was trying to generate publicity. A lawyer for Private Media, Michael Bradley, said Murdoch had discontinued his Federal Court claim without warning and that Murdoch would pay Private Media's costs. "It's complete vindication of their stand on the principle of press freedom," Bradley said in an email, referring to Crikey and its employees. Fox and its top-rated cable channel Fox News on April 18 settled a defamation lawsuit by ballot machine operator Dominion Voting Systems, on what was to be the first day of a trial where Lachlan's father, Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch, had been expected to testify. In the Australian lawsuit, which was scheduled to go to trial in October, Lachlan Murdoch had accused Private Media and four employees of damaging his reputation in a June 29, 2022, opinion piece that described the Murdochs as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the effort by Trump supporters to overturn his election loss.

[1/3] Dominion lawyers embrace after Dominion Voting Systems and Fox settled the defamation lawsuit over Fox's coverage of debunked election-rigging claims, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S., April 18, 2023. At least 31 lawyers from nine different law firms worked on the case, court filings show. It was not immediately clear how large a share of the settlement the firm would receive in legal fees. The filings do not include recent costs associated with preparing for trial or the success fees lawyers could earn from the settlement. Fox News also hired Paul Clement and Erin Murphy, top appeals court lawyers who have advocated for conservative causes at the U.S. Supreme Court.

☆ Fox has more headaches coming after agreeing to pay $787.5 million to settle Dominion's defamation lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

After shelling out $787.5 billion to settle Dominion's lawsuit, Fox has more troubles on the way. Atop the list is a separate lawsuit from Smartmatic, another election technology company that sued Fox News Network and its parent company, Fox Corp., in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. Smartmatic's defamation lawsuit asks for $2.7 billion in damages and was filed against Fox Corp.; Fox News Network; hosts Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and Lou Dobbs; and Powell and Giuliani. Aside from the Smartmatic case, Fox News has to deal with potential shareholder lawsuits. The overall value of Fox Corp. — which also includes Fox Sports and the streaming service Tubi — is more than $17.6 billion.

☆ The $787.5 million settlement Fox has to pay is a big nut. But Fox's net cost for that will be much less.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Here’s why:Settlement payments are tax deductible if the company pays out of pocket. The corporate income tax is also about dollars and cents, not about judging behavior that led to the business expense in the first place. “Our income tax measures income, not probity,” said business tax expert Steven Rosenthal, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. In addition, “Fox also may deduct their settlement payments for state and local income tax purposes,” Rosenthal noted. If Fox pays for an insurance policy that it expects will reimburse it for its settlement costs, then it may not deduct the cost of the settlement payment.

☆ Senate Republicans who backed Trump's election fraud claims say Fox News settling Dominion case leaves things 'a little murky'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Several Senate Republicans predicted the settlement wouldn't change much at Fox or in journalism. "A bad settlement is a lot better than going to court," one Trump backer told Insider. "I think that it leaves a few things a little murky," Braun said while walking through the Senate subway. "The trial was likely to be pretty ugly," Cruz told Insider. "It's no problem — if you don't lie," Romney told Insider between votes.

☆ Fox News says little on air about its $787.5 million settlement with Dominion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Helen Coster | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, who had been expected to testify in the Dominion trial, did not reference the settlement, the largest struck by an American media company, during their primetime broadcasts on Tuesday night. Fox News is owned by Fox Corp (FOXA.O) and is the most-watched U.S. cable news network. Howard Kurtz, the host of Fox News' MediaBuzz show, appeared on Cavuto's show and during "Special Report with Bret Baier." On "Special Report" Kurtz read the Fox statement, but did not include the dollar figure of the settlement. In response to a Reuters request for comment about Fox's coverage of the settlement, a spokesperson shared the company's statement about the Dominion settlement that aired on Cavuto and Baier's shows.

"Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and our customers," Poulos said in a statement. Fox anchor Neil Cavuto broke into his news show "Your World" about 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to report the settlement. In February court filings, Dominion cited a trove of internal communications in which Murdoch and other Fox figures privately acknowledged that the vote-rigging claims made about Dominion on-air were false. Dominion said Fox amplified the untrue claims to boost its ratings and prevent its viewers from migrating to other media competitors on the right. ANOTHER LAWSUIT PENDINGAdding to the legal risks for Fox, another U.S. voting technology company, Smartmatic, is pursuing its own defamation lawsuit seeking $2.7 billion in damages in a New York state court.

☆ CNN host bursts out laughing as he reads Fox News' $787.5 million Dominion settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Jake Tapper laughed as he read out Fox News' statement about its settlement with Dominion. The conservative news network reached the settlement just before a trial was about to start. Dominion sued Fox for broadcasting false claims that its machines were used to rig the 2020 election. Tapper said the settlement "can only be interpreted as one of the ugliest and most embarrassing moments in the history of journalism." In a statement to Deadline, Fox News hit back, saying that "we can't look at CNN's awful ratings without laughing and we're sure Warner Bros.

☆ Fox's $787 million settlement won't restore damage to US democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Fox News will pay $787.5 million for transmitting lies that a small voting technology firm helped steal the 2020 election. And Trump himself is facing several criminal probes related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the run-up to the January 6, 2021, insurrection. And is there any chance that Fox’s humiliation can repair some of the damage from the disastrous election aftermath in 2020? That missing moment of accountability will be important because claims that the 2020 election was corrupt are not some artifact of recent history. No single case can repair the damage of 2020The extent to which Trump’s falsehoods and conspiracy theories harmed democracy is open to debate.

☆ Fox faces similar defamation case from Smartmatic after Dominion settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Fox Corp. and its TV networks agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit this week, but the media giant's legal headaches don't end there. Still hanging in the balance is voting software company Smartmatic USA's defamation case, which is seeking $2.7 billion in damages – over $1 billion more than Dominion initially sought in its lawsuit. Smartmatic, like Dominion, filed its defamation lawsuit against Fox for spreading false claims that its voting software helped rig the 2020 election that saw Joe Biden triumph over Donald Trump. Although Smartmatic's lawsuit was filed shortly ahead of Dominion's in 2021, the pace of the case has lagged in comparison. It remains unclear how or whether the settlement between Fox and Dominion will affect Smartmatic's case.

☆ 16 takeaways from Fox News' historic $787.5 million settlement with Dominion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

In the moments after I watched the judge announce the settlement in court, 16 things went through my mind:1. Evidence obtained by Dominion in the lawsuit and filed to court ahead of the settlement appeared to support that theory. There's always the Smartmatic case. In court filings ahead of the settlement, Fox complained about the $1.6 billion price tag Dominion put on the lawsuit. "Would be pretty unreal if you guys like 20x'ed your Dominion investment with these lawsuits," read one text to a Staple Street executive cited in a Fox court filing.

☆ No evidence Dominion lawsuit has damaged Fox's core business or viewership: Semafor's Ben Smith
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailNo evidence Dominion lawsuit has damaged Fox's core business or viewership: Semafor's Ben SmithBen Smith, Semafor co-founder and editor-in-chief, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss Fox's $787.5 million settlement in the Dominion lawsuit and more.

☆ 'We feel good' keeping Fox accountable and exposing the truth: Staple Street Capital's Yaghoobzadeh
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via Email'We feel good' keeping Fox accountable and exposing the truth: Staple Street Capital's YaghoobzadehHootan Yaghoobzadeh, co-founder of Staple Street Capital, the private equity firm that owns Dominion Voting Systems, joins CNBC's Eamon Javers on 'Squawk Box' to discuss Fox's $787.5 million settlement with the company and what it plans to do with the money.

Fox agreed to a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems on Tuesday. But a senior media executive told Insider that insurance typically handles these types of payments. Fox Corp. had nearly $4.1 billion of cash on hand, according to comments made in February by company CEO Lachlan Murdoch. Fox Corp., which also owns assets such as the broadcast network and streamer Tubi, has a market capitalization of $17.61 billion as of Tuesday. In 2017, Fox also agreed to a $90 million "derivatives" settlement against company officers over sexual harassment issues at Fox News, according to Reuters.

Even before Tuesday's settlement, Staple Street's investment in Dominion had paid off handsomely. Yaghoobzadeh told reporters on Tuesday that Staple Street backed Dominion in its mission to shoot down lies against it. Staple Street investor Mark Hauser, managing partner of Hauser Private Equity, also welcomed the settlement news. "We are very pleased with the outcome and think that Staple Street has handled the situation very well on behalf of their investors. We’ve had a relationship with Staple Street since 2014 and think highly of their management team," he said.

"Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and our customers," Poulos said in a statement. Shares of Fox Corp closed up slightly at $34 per share, but were down 1% in after-hours trading after the settlement amount was disclosed. Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch told Wall Street analysts in February that the company had about $4 billion cash on hand. [1/5] Dominion CEO John Poulos and lawyers speak to the media after Dominion Voting Systems and Fox settled a defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million, avoiding trial, over Fox's coverage of debunked election-rigging claims, in Delaware Superior Court, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. April 18, 2023. Fox Corp reported nearly $14 billion in annual revenue last year.

November 15, 2020 -- Fox’s daytime average audience reaches a 35% decline since the eve of the election, according to statistics cited in Dominion's lawsuit. March 26, 2021 -- Dominion sues Fox News in Delaware Superior Court. March 31, 2023 -- Davis rules that the statements aired on Fox were false, defamatory and not covered by legal protections for the press under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment. April 12, 2023 -- Davis sanctions Fox after it was revealed that the network failed to turn over relevant recordings and transcripts until the eve of trial. April 16, 2023 -- Davis delays trial by one day without giving a reason, but two sources told Reuters that Fox and Dominion were holding last-minute settlement talks.

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