Welcome to the Bullwork Podcast. I'm Charlie Seig's. It is April 14, 2023 and I'm going to confess

I am really nervous about today's podcast. Our guest is Dylan Byers, who is the founding

partner and Senior Correspondent at Puck News. He covers the business of media technology

and entertainment previously worked at NBC News, CNN and Politico and is going to be covering

the Fox News defamation trial next week. Can I explain why I'm nervous about this, Dylan?

Please. Okay, so part of me cannot get my head around the fact that Rupert Murk, I guess,

is going to allow this case, the Dominion case, to go to trial. So the headline on this is either

what the Fox News trial will look like next week or why there won't be a Fox News trial next week

because they settled. Part of me is thinking we're recording this Thursday afternoon that by the time

we post this, the whole world will blown up, Rupert Murk will have come to his senses. They've

written out a check for $1.6 billion in the most groveling apology in the history of defamation

and it will all go away. So is this thing going to settle by the time people listen to this? What do you

think? No, I think it will not. I'm pretty confident it will not actually, you know, low and behold,

I might be eating my words, but no, your instincts here and the questions you're asking are the

right ones. If you look at how Rupert has handled every scandal across his media empire over the course

of his half century career as a media mogul, settlements are the name of the game. The Washington

Post reported recently that he has paid something to the tune of $750 million in settlements over

the course of the last 13 years alone. So whether it is sexual harassment claims at Fox News, whether

it is phone tapping scandals in the UK, these things are settled. And in fact, within just the

last few days, there was a Venezuelan businessman who brought a defamation suit that was tangentially

related to the Dominion suit and Fox News settled with him. There's been a Venezuelan businessman,

he sued Fox and Ludobs, who's no longer at Fox, who had claimed that this guy and other Venezuelans

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