You referenced the McDougal case against Fox News and claimed that was the only time Fox used that defense (in defense of Tucker Carlson). I replied with the Rupert Murdoch testimony from the Dominion case, in which he admitted that Fox News at large knew it was spreading lies and did nothing to mitigate it. In his testimony, he claimed the anchors were merely personalities expressing opinions, but the evidence clearly showed that these “opinions” were being presented as news pieces in articles and news package stories. He then admitted Fox News knew the truth and allowed the lies to spread.
The same defense (that Fox News “news” is just opinion that no reasonable person would confuse an editorial with fact) was also used in the Smartmatic case and the Nina Jankowicz case. When that defense did not work, they then shifted to, “We were just reporting the debate”. This double-play is Fox News’ go-to defense strategy.
That’s four cases in which they’ve used this strategy, which they have dubbed their “First Ammendment Defense” and their “Newsworthy Reporting” defense.
Fox News openly admits in these four cases (under oath) to being liars. They attempt to conflate their deceptive reporting with opinion editorials, even when the “news piece” is presented as fact. When shown that they were not presented as editorials, they then claim to just be reporting the “national debate” on the topic. The strategy has not worked in 3 of the 4 cases, but they are sticking with it.
Please stop defending their propaganda machine. It is harmful to share Fox News stories and claim that such a source can, in any universe, be relied upon for honest factual reporting.