world, we know news organizations take on enormous risk when they publish things they know to be false. they risk their representations. in the rare instances where actual malice can be established, they also face legal exposure. this knowledge of falsity on fox s part was established through mountains of internal communications that prove that the producers, the executives and the anchors knew that claims of massive voter fraud were false ahead of time and they broadcast them anyway. the case dominion had against fox was so strong that by the time the trial commenced, the only thing the jury was going to have to determine was whether fox met that really, really high legal bar of acting with actual malice when it knowingly published falsities about dominion. now, as we all know, instead of standing trial, fox decided to settle for close to $800 million. what we know from that discovery process is dominion established from the top of that company to the bottom, from ruper murd
so there s not a pressing electoral decision to be made by anyone alive in this country. but for reasons actually articulated by the top of that company, a person named david zaslav, trump was plat formed and published by cnn. former president trump is going to be on cnn? yeah, he should be. given what happened it s a divided government. we need to hear both voices. that s what you see. republicans are on the air on cnn, democrats are on cnn. all voices should be heard. for the record, republicans are on the air here, too. all voices he said, all voices. all in that context includes a person whose track record of lying is undeniable and something any news organization would be prepared to deal with, right? despite rather valiant efforts by cnn to push back on the many, many lives, the cacophony of lies, many observers found and
sources newsletter last night, written by oliver darcy. he writes, quote, trump lied about the 2020 election, he took no responsibility for the january 6th insurrection and the lives inside it. he mocked e. jean carroll s allegations of sexual assault which he was found liable for on tuesday. cnn aired it all. on and on it went. it felt like 2016 all over again. it was trump s unhinged social media fooe feed brought to light on stage. collins was put in an uncomfortable position, the audience applauding trump giving unintended endorsement to his shameful antics. i am obviously a female anchor at a media company. i cannot think of any circumstance where my employers would put me in a position where i interviewed somebody who called me nasty and the audience applauded, and the head of the news room would say this the next morning. this is chris licht, the
i never saw this woman. he goes on to say, what kind of a woman meets somebody and brings them up and within minutes you re playing hanky panky in a dressing room, okay? i don t know if she was married then or not. john johnson, i feel sorry for you, john johnson. it s a word salad. we tried to make sense of it. we believe that s a reference to her ex-husband. he continues to call her a, quote, whack job. now, the reaction from the crowd is also worth telling you about, the laughs when he smears a woman who had just the day before prevailed in court against him. the bulwark writes this, this is a moment we knew. we knew who trump was, of course, but last night showed us who we are and what s about to happen. this is the gop front-runner. he s still the star who can do anything, and it will get worse. the platforming of a known liar and misogynist is where we start the hour. andrew weissmann is back with
process is dominion established from the top of that company to the bottom, from ruper murdock to tucker carlson, the fact-checkers and newsman jers, they all knew ahead of time pre broadcast that the content was false. what does that do? for today s purposes, it reframes our questions today about the risk involved to one s reputation in what was platformed, we ll use the word published again, on cnn last night and whether, if perhaps intoxicated by the attention, maybe even the ratings, it becomes a pattern or practice or habit for them or anyone else to platform someone who we know ahead of time will spread known and established and repeated falsities on their airwaves. to put it another way, it s not about last night. it s about what happens next. as you may have heard, trump was there. no one will cast a single vote in any primary for seven months