I want to read you
some of what Fox issued as a statement
after the deal.
They wrote,
We acknowledge the court's
rulings finding certain claims
about Dominion to be false.
I want to ask you about that in a second.
But first, they go on to say this
settlement reflects Fox's
continued commitment
to the highest journalistic
standards, unquote,
Is that how you see the settlement
as an example of Fox's
commitment to the highest level
of journalistic standards?
Thanks for having me on.
For us at Dominion,
this has always been
about getting the truth out
and holding the different entities
that have defamed us to account.
The fact that the world knows
all the details behind that
and behind
what happened in particular
with Fox Corp. and Fox News.
And it
did come out
in our motion for summary judgment
meant that meant for us
that we had accomplished that.
The only remaining
item for us was for the jury to set the
the amount and the liability.
And ultimately
a lot of people don't appreciate
what goes into a trial.
We have a lot of employees
that have experienced trauma,
and we have six more trials
to go.
And I suspect that
they will go all the way
to a jury verdict on all other six.
And that's something that
we don't take lightly.
We've asked
a lot of our election officials
to testify
for no personal gain of their own.
And frankly,
they all said, yes, everyone
we had asked said yes.
And that's not an easy thing for us
to ask of,
and it's not something we did lightly,
especially considering
we have six more to go. Right.
You mentioned
all the traumatized employees
of Dominion.
I don't I don't doubt it for a second.
What's going to happen with them?
Obviously,
the private equity managers
that own dominion
are going to get a lot of money.
Obviously,
those lawyers
are going to get a lot of money.
I imagine a third or so.
That's usually how these things go.
What's going to happen
with those employees
you say are traumatized
or are they going to
get any of this huge settlement
Those are terrible assumptions, Jake.
Our partners at Staples St Capital
have been nothing other
than unconditionally supportive of us.
The only question
that they really ever asked to me
and our employees during this time
was how they could help.
In the early days,
it was
I reached out to them and asked them
for help assembling the legal team.
So you bring up the legal team. We had,
I think, the assembled,
the best group of lawyers
that anyone really could ever hope for.
And I think it showed
in the judge's remarks the other day.
And as far as our employees, absolutely,
we have a number of employees
that are shareholders.
And our commitment
has always been to our shareholders.
Absolutely.
Every one of our employees
will benefit from this
and our customers will benefit
from this from
the fact that we have longevity
as a company.
You said in the press conference
right after the settlement was announced
at Fox
that apologized
for telling those election lines.
They they didn't apologize.
They said in their statement
that they acknowledge
that the court's ruling finds
certain claims
about Dominion to be false.
They don't even acknowledge
that those false statements are theirs,
and they didn't have to acknowledge
any of this on air.
How did that work?
Did you want them to go on
air and apologize and say, we misled you?
And they said, well,
how about we give you $100 million more
and we don't have to do that?
I mean,
where was the negotiation
on making sure that their viewers
who are the ones that believe these lies
and interviewers
don't believe these lies?
ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC,
they don't believe the lies.
It's Fox viewers believe these lies.
Why not get them to acknowledge it?
I suppose for
myself, I have
not really thought through,
and I think we probably disagree
on the effect of what
an apology really
would mean for their viewers.
Viewers turn to their trusted
media sources, whatever the channel is.
And for us, it was about accountability
and we if anything,
we wanted this settlement.
And the dollars obviously
are very significant for any entity,
including Fox. That's huge.
To me, it's huge.
And I think lies have consequences.
As Justin Nielsen, in that press
release that you played out
at the beginning of the sport here,
but for any media company, Jake,
I'm sure you included,
the next time you decide to make
a statement that you're
that your fact checkers are telling you
is not true,
you know,
you should probably apologize
in two days in a row.
That doesn't you're probably apologizing.
But journalists and journalists
don't do that.
And I'm like, look,
every journalist makes mistakes.
I mean, that is just that happens.
But but the kind of deception
that you and your lawyers laid out
multiple lies over and over,
over the course of months,
text messaging and emails suggesting
that they knew
that the guests were spewing lies.
They knew that
that some of their own hosts,
like Maria Bartiromo,
were saying things
that were not true
that they did not believe to be true.
So it's not
what Fox, the settlement they pay.
That's nothing to do
with what I do for a living.
And when I make a mistake, I go on air.
I apologize.
I you know, it happens.
Everybody makes mistakes.
This is not a mistake.
This is malice.
This is lying to the American people.
And honestly,
John Fox barely
covered this on their website yesterday.
We found one article
buried deep
on their website about the settlement.
It does not mention the 787.5
historic million dollar amount.
You said this morning
you hope that Fox is going to learn
the lesson, start telling the truth.
Have you seen any evidence
that they're going to start
telling the truth?
Well, Jake,
you said a number of things there.
To me, the fact that, you know,
all these facts
has meant that we reached
one part of our goal
that's very important
for us, for our employees
and for our customers.
And the fact
that everyone in the world knows
these facts is a testament
to the fact that we had the support
to take this through with our team
all the way to summary judgment.
We also felt that the the amount of money
that was paid speaks for itself.
We may disagree.
We may agree to disagree on on
what an apology would actually do.
I'm more concerned
about the next instance.
On any channel.
My hope is that media tells the truth.
We have a very high standard
for individuals to sue media companies
for defamation.
In my opinion,
it's exactly the way it should be.
It should be a high standard.
I think that media
can be expected
once in a while to get things wrong
and then correct it
in pursuit of the truth.
But this is something different.
This was 20 statements over
two and a half months, right?
This was not a case of them
not knowing the truth.
And that is laid out
very, very clearly in the motion
for summary judgment.
And in the judge's words,
quote, It is crystal clear
that you did not rig the 2020 election.
Of course they didn't.
Of course you didn't.
And neither did Smartmatic.
Of course, the Italians,
I mean, it's so nonsensical all of it.
And yet they completely abdicated
whatever pretense observers ever had.
And it really honestly,
this has nothing to do
with what every other news network does.
This has to do
with Fox and James McConnell and
Jake You say that it's
of course we didn't.
And that's great
that you never believed that.
I can tell you
that there is a large
percent of the population
that did believe it
because they tune in to Fox
as the sad news source.
But that's my question.
Why not force them to tell
all those people,
all those misled Americans,
which polls indicate
millions of them
still believe this nonsense?
Why not force them to say
we shouldn't have done that?
That was false.
You have been misled.
Joe Biden actually won
Dominion and Smartmatic
and all that stuff was operating fine.
Why not force them to do that?
Was was it just like,
we'll give you $200 million more
if you don't force us to do it,
because you could have
forced them to do it.
Well, A the defamation
the defamation part of the law
is really not built around apologies.
It is built to
compensate for damage.
And I can tell you,
we had a companywide call yesterday
and the unanimous consent in our company
is if we could trade this all in
and go back in time
and have our company reputation back,
we would do so. Exactly.
Single time. Exactly.
That's but that's my point.
What is that?
What are your plans for the company?
I mean, can you continue?
There are still these people out there,
elections officials,
who are refusing to use certain software.
There are still individuals
who are associated with Donald Trump
still out there, like saying
that these electronic machines,
Dominion, Smartmatic, etc.,
cannot be trusted.
I mean, it's this lie persists.
Well, to the first part of the question,
we still have six
more parties in litigation, and we intend
to take it right to the very end
and to hold them accountable
in terms of our election
officials, our technology
features voter verified paper ballots
And we continue as long as our
as well as our election officials
continue to urge voters everywhere
of all political leanings
to reach out to their local election.
Officials
and learn
about how their elections
are actually run.
All right.
Well, John, you guys got done dirty
by Fox and the MAGA
ecosphere, media ecosphere, and it sucks
that it happened to you.