Oops, They Did it Again
Newsmax Pays for Election Bullshit
THEY KNEW. The Newsmax network, a propaganda arm of the Trump machine, spread lies and garbage about the 2020 election being stolen.
They knew it was false. But they needed the money.
The network, which I hope you have never seen, is a fantasia of Trumpist propaganda that tries to outflank FoxNews from the right. Like Fox, Newsmax peddled easily disproven conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. This “news“ network had Rudy Giuliani, Sydney Powell, Mike Lindell, and a variety of other lunatics on air to claim that voting machines from Dominion and Smartmatic were secretly switching votes for…Hugo Chavez…or…something.
Until they went to court. When Dominion sued, Newsmax suddenly had no evidence. Emails from senior Newsmax officials admitted their claims “may be fun” but were “bad journalism.“ One host asked, perhaps literally, “How long are we going to have to play along with election fraud?” Even Newsmax owner Christopher Ruddy warned that Sydney Powell needs to “check in to a hospital.”
But Newsmax didn’t let that stop them! They were about to have an IPO, an initial public offering that would make the owner and senior employees very rich. So they lied about a stolen election because– shocker! – MAGA faithful gobbled up their phony coverage. More lies brought in more viewers, which meant a higher IPO valuation.
Well that was expensive. Newsmax already had to pay $40 million to Smartmatic, and now has to pay $67 million to Dominion. FoxNews previously had to pay almost $800 million to Dominion. Trump’s big beautiful election lie, the mother of them all, the lie that inspired the Jan. 6 attack on our capitol, turned out to be a catastrophically expensive delusion for his enablers.
To review: Yes, the factual evidence shows that Russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election on Trump’s behalf. Yes, Joe Biden won the 2020 Election fair-n-square. Yes, January 6 was orchestrated by Donald Trump, and carried out by his supporters, not the FBI and Antifa and the CIA.
They talked one way on air, and another way in the courtroom.
Newsmax pays $67 million to settle defamation case linked to 2020 election coverage
The right-wing news channel Newsmax has agreed to pay $67 million to Dominion Voting Systems over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election. A trial had been scheduled for October.
Read in NPR:
https://apple.news/ARSl_tpVyTOSKqAmch75Ebw