Defamation, Libel, and Dominion, Oh My!

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What is defamation? Libel? Pre-trial discovery? Actual malice? Today we go into everything tied to the recently settled Dominion Voting Systems vs Fox News Network defamation lawsuit; including slander, libel, discovery, settlement, and the "whackadoodle email." Our guide through the world of defamation legalities is Jane Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. We talk about why these lies were presented to the public, and the possible reasons why Dominion chose to settle instead of continue with the trial. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the lead. We have some breaking news for you. I'm Jake Tapper.
0:03.4	Moments ago we learned there is a settlement, a settlement and the high
0:07.7	stakes trial between Dominion voting systems and Fox. Dominion was suing Fox
0:13.3	for $1.6 billion dollars. The trial was expected to be a barn burner. Check out
0:18.2	the long line to get into the Delaware courtroom. Court documents revealing
0:21.8	how the most prominent Fox News stars and executive privately mocked Donald
0:27.1	Trump's election lies while promoting them publicly.
0:31.6	Quote, the wind tells me I'm a ghost.
0:39.6	You're listening to civics 101. I'm Nick Capitice. I'm Hannah McCarthy.
0:43.0	And today we are talking about defamation, specifically a breakdown of the
0:48.2	terms and legalities surrounding the recent lawsuit, Dominion voting
0:52.5	systems versus Fox News network. We are going to cover such salacious
0:56.8	words as slander, liable, actual malice and also some more benign
1:02.0	sounding words like discovery and settlement. Okay, Nick, before we get into
1:06.5	the definitions, we always say that we love talking about court cases because
1:11.7	they are at their foundation stories. What is the story of this lawsuit?
1:17.7	It seems like yesterday, Hannah, election night, November 3, 2020.
1:23.4	You remember that night? I do.
1:25.6	It's been clear for a while that the former vice president is in the lead in
1:30.5	Arizona, and was most likely to win the state. It has been in the
1:34.4	category that we call knowable, but not callable for about an hour.
1:38.6	It would take several days until the tally was final, but Joe Biden defeats
	...

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