On Tuesday Dominion Voting Systems settled its lawsuit against Fox News, sparing the media company from six very uncomfortable weeks in court. The settlement was a heartbreaking development for the leftwing media, who had been preparing eagerly to cover every moment of the court proceedings.
Talking heads complained that in agreeing to settle out of court, Dominion had cost Americans an opportunity to learn the full extent of Fox’s alleged malfeasance. They also griped that the terms did not require Fox to formally apologize to Dominion. Watch the video below for a sample of the media’s hissing:
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes conducted an interview with Dominion co-lead counsel Stephen Shackleford on the Tuesday edition of All In. He suggested that, in accepting the settlement, Shackleford’s team had deprived America of closure:
I’d like you to respond to people who feel that the public, in a larger way, was robbed of an opportunity to learn more and to have some public accountability, by not having this trial go forward and the settlement being struck today.
This idea that Dominion had somehow sold out was also prevalent on CNN that evening. During the 10:00 p.m. ET hour of CNN Tonight, Los Angeles Times columnist LZ Granderson opined sourly: “Democracy loses, Capitalism wins.” He added:
The reason why there’s a settlement is because the capital venturist [sic] people who own Dominion saw the profit margins and said, ‘big bucks, no whammies, I’m taking the money, I’m not taking a chance at trial. We don’t care that we can expose all of this. We don’t care what this does for democracy, we don’t care about the public good, we care about turning a profit.
Inside Politics host John King made a similar point on Wednesday: “Capitalism won. Dominion won. Did democracy get anything out of this?”
Over the last 24 hours we’ve heard many impassioned statements about the importance of truth in journalism. And obviously, yes, the truth is the cornerstone of proper journalism. But when those statements come from CNN and MSNBC, it winds up looking like a bunch of TV personalities crammed in a glass room, flinging stones at the walls.
