cnn
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That's all.
The media defamation trial of the century is about to begin in Wilmington, Delaware, in just a few days.
Jury selection in Dominion Voting Systems' monster $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit took place all day Thursday, and 300 potential jurors were summoned to court. Good progress was made and the presiding judge noted that there were “more than enough jurors” to begin the trial as scheduled on Monday.
It is there, in Courtroom 7E, that Murdoch Media's most senior figures, accompanied by a host of high-profile lawyers, will attempt to mount their defense after repeatedly failing to convince a judge to dismiss the now historic case.
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Frankly, it's extraordinary to write those words. When I watched the election broadcast on Fox News after the 2020 election, I never expected the network to be held accountable in any meaningful way.
I've covered Fox News for a while now. I have watched thousands and thousands of hours of right-wing channel programming. Over the years, I have watched your hosts undermine public health, make crude anti-immigrant comments, peddle lies and propaganda, and push deranged conspiracy theories once reserved for the most extreme sectors of the right.
The network has always seemed to find a way around controversy, even the most hellish storms it has faced. At times it has emerged even stronger and more emboldened than before.
But this time it's different. This time, the usual tricks that the network resorts to in times of crisis will not save it from problems. This time, in a court of law, the network will have to present an honest, fact-based argument.
Fox News is about to enter the true No Spin Zone, where deception is strictly prohibited. Where you are not in charge. And where its top executives like Rupert Murdoch and Suzanne Scott and hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity can't simply ignore a request for comment and resort instead to attacking “the media” on air.
In this environment, where lies cannot be told casually and the truth cannot be distorted beyond reality to fit a dishonest narrative, it will be fascinating to see how the network fares. If the pretrial hearings are any indicator, it won't be pretty. The case hasn't even started and the presiding judge has already lost patience with Fox's legal team and warned them.
Perhaps the winds will change for Fox News when the judge marks the trial on Monday. But if they play out like the last few weeks in court have, Fox News is in for a brutal ride.
