Tag: fox news
Tech Billionaire Invests Heavily In Smartmatic Lawsuit Against Fox News

Tech Billionaire Invests Heavily In Smartmatic Lawsuit Against Fox News

Any hope that executives at Fox News could stiff-arm and drag out the defamation lawsuit filed against them by voting technology company Smartmatic following the 2020 presidential election took a serious hit after a billionaire investor came to their rescue.

According to a report from the Washington Post, billionaire Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman has invested millions in the company that will allow it to bolster their legal battle with the media giant.

With Fox having already settled with Dominion Voting Systems to the tune of $787.5 million to make their 2020 election conspiracy defamation case go away, Smartmatic can now avoid being forced to drop their suit due to lack of funds.

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Noting that Hoffman was a behind-the-scenes backer of New York writer E. Jean Carroll's lawsuits against Donald Trump that led to the former president getting hit with $89 million in judgments, the tech billionaire is once again a player in a lawsuit tied to Trump — in this case his election loss.


As the Post's Jeremy Barr is reporting, Hoffmann explained his move in a statement, writing: “Smartmatic built a global business by using technology to better engage citizens, regardless of party or ideology, by making voting simple and trustworthy,” before adding, “After Donald Trump lost in 2020, however, Smartmatic became a target of the defamatory campaign to overturn his defeat.”

Speaking for Hoffman, spokesperson Dmitri Mehlhorn elaborated, "Not only is Smartmatic a great investment in terms of financial returns, this was a way to provide capital that would allow the truth to be found in the courts. This is a company that is a great company with a great CEO, and this case is a great case.”

The Post report goes on to note that "billionaires have previously wielded unexpected influence in media defamation battles. Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal, paid about $10 million to help finance a lawsuit filed by the wrestler Hulk Hogan against Gawker Media. Thiel had taken a dislike to Gawker after the gossip-focused website published unflattering articles about him and his associates. When Hogan won a $140 million judgment against Gawker, the company was forced into bankruptcy.(Hoffman was an early executive at PayPal, and both he and Thiel are part of the 'PayPal mafia.')"

Hoffman spokesperson Mehlhorn admitted, "When Reid deploys financial capital, that always has a philosophical element of protecting the rule of law. We’ve always thought the court system was an important part of the battle to protect America from MAGA.”

In a statement to Raw Story, Fox News wrote: “As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims against FOX News are highly implausible, disconnected from reality and on their face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms, so their alliance with a high profile Democratic donor and longtime supporter of President Biden to fund their lawsuit is entirely predictable. We remain ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial next year.”

You can read more here.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Jeff Landry

'Ten Commandments' Governor Gets Roughed Up By Fox News Anchor

Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry appeared surprised in a Friday Fox News interview when asked to defend his newly-signed law requiring the Bible’s Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom throughout the state, which critics say is unconstitutional.

Speaking about the First Amendment principle of separation of church and state, which the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed at least a half-dozen times, Landry declared: “I challenge anyone who says that to go find me those words in the First Amendment. They don’t exist.”

He went on to claim those who want to “extract” what he claims are America’s Judeo-Christian principles “out of the foundation of this country…really and truly want to create the chaos that ultimately is the demise of this nation.”

On Thursday in a signing ceremony Landry declared the Bible’s Moses is the “original lawgiver,” a claim some challenged as a cultural choice and not an accurate one, given there are others that date back earlier, to ancient Greece, Babylon, and India.

“You’ve heard the criticism, it seems to be pouring in. Was it still the right thing to do?” Governor Landry was asked Friday afternoon.

“I mean, I didn’t know that living the Ten Commandments is a bad way to live life,” Landry replied, not touching the obvious and likely unconstitutional nature of the legislation he proudly signed 24 hours earlier. “I didn’t know that it was so vile to obey the Ten Commandments. I think that that speaks volumes about how eroded this country has become. I mean, look, this country was, was founded on Judeo-Christian principles and every time we steer away from that we have problems in our nation. I mean, right now schools teach, basically treat kids like critters and get the Ten Commandments is something bad to put in schools? It just it’s amazing.”

The founders clearly intended to create a secular, not religious government and took great care, including in the First Amendment, to ensure no religion was favored and individuals had the right to observe any faith, multiple faiths, or none at all.

“For those listening right now, they’re wondering, what’s the goal?” Fox News host Sandra Smith continued. “Because it’s not as if this is going to be taught in every school and classroom. This is just being displayed on the walls. So my question to you is, how is this going to improve the school environment and the performance of kids in those schools? When Governor, I pull up the report cards of these public schools and Louisiana is struggling, I mean, it is at the bottom of the country. The education system is failing these kids. I mean, Louisiana is 43, 44th in math and reading. So is this gonna help what is a very big problem in Louisiana?”

“Look, I think it’s part and parcel for helping kids anywhere around the country, if other states followed our suits, but at the same time that we signed that bill into law, we signed a string of others assign 20 bills, including this one, to reform Louisiana schools.”

Experts note that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a similar law in 1980.

Sandra Smith’s remarks about Louisiana failing are accurate. According to U.S. News and World Report, Louisiana ranks 47th in education, 50th in crime, 49th in the economy, 46th in health care, and overall, it ranks last, at number 50.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

New Fox Poll Shows Biden Surging Ahead, So Trump Shrieks 'Trash!'

New Fox Poll Shows Biden Surging Ahead, So Trump Shrieks 'Trash!'

Fox News released a new poll Wednesday showing a three-point shift toward President Joe Biden, putting him ahead nationally at the highest number since last October.

Biden is ahead of Donald Trump at 50 percent to 48 percent, and there was an even bigger swing in an extended poll that included Robert Kennedy, Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein. In that poll, Biden now edges out Trump by 42 percent to 41 percent, a four-point shift from May.

Not only does this poll indicate that Trump's conviction was not an automatic boost for his campaign as so many Republicans have claimed, it also shows the best numbers on the economy that Biden has received in a Fox poll.

Meanwhile, Trump has discovered that he hates Fox News.

Naturally, Fox, which has made a habit of blasting out even the most unlikely results from polls that showed Trump ahead, has gone silent about these new results.

As The Washington Postreports, evening news host Bret Baier handed out the top lines on the Wednesday night broadcast, saying that the difference between Biden and Trump was “within the margin of error.” Which it is.

Baier swung immediately to a story about immigrant violence, though he did have a Washington Times commentator on at the end of his segment to explain how elections “don’t turn on amorphous things like the future of democracy” but on things that really matter—like the danger of immigrants.

For the rest of the evening, hosts focused on other topics, like defending their heavily edited videos claiming that Biden had “wandered away” or had forgotten the name of a Cabinet secretary.

Earlier in the evening, pundit Jesse Watters—the latest to hold the Sean Hannity/Tucker Carlson chair of fear and loathing—appeared on another program to insist that the polls were “locked in” with Trump in the lead. When it came time for his own show, Watters forgot to mention that the polls had moved.

Laura Ingraham also apparently didn’t get the new numbers. She not only didn’t mention the new poll results on her program, but she was insistent that Trump is ahead. Ingraham was also on message about why democracy doesn’t matter.

“The top concerns of voters remain the economy, border, inflation, the cost of everything. And Biden has made it all worse,” she said.

Hmm. The economy, inflation, and the cost of everything? That’s almost like … all the same thing.

But it’s funny that she would focus on this, as the Fox poll also had some changes on that front.

Fifty-nine percent say they are getting ahead or holding steady financially, up 5 points since last summer, and 44% feel optimistic about the economy, up 9 points compared to 2023.

The economic numbers don’t sound great. They’re not. But the movement is all in Biden’s direction. Despite the concerted efforts of a news media that seems fixated on telling people how bad things are, it seems like they might have noticed all of the not-collapsing around them.

But even worse for Ingraham—and Trump—is that she is fundamentally wrong about voter concerns. Because the item at the top of the poll, the one that voters found most important about the coming election, was “the future of American democracy.” The economy slid to second place, with “stability and normalcy” a close third.

It was this suggestion, that Americans are concerned about America, that really put Trump on full boil.

“The #1 issue in this Country is not protecting democracy,” Trump railed. “It is INFLATION and IMMIGRATION!”

Funny how Trump and Ingraham were so exactly aligned. Guess they didn’t mention this poll when everyone was getting together for the morning talking points.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Paul Ryan

Ex-Speaker Ryan: Trump 'Betrayed His Oath' And Is 'Unfit For Office'

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) told Fox News on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump is unsuitable for another term in office — and that he believes the former president isn't loyal to upholding the Constitution.

"I voted for him in 2016, hoping that there was going to be a different kind of person in office," Ryan told host Neil Cavuto. "And I do think character is a really important issue. If you put yourself above the Constitution, as he has done, I think that makes you unfit for office."

"But what happened?" asked Cavuto. "What turned you off? Was it the whole January 6 thing?"

"That's a part of it, I think it's a contribution of factors," said Ryan. "But I think it really is his character at the end of the day, and the fact that if you're willing to put yourself above the Constitution, an oath you swear when you take office, federal office, whether there's president or a member of Congress, you swear an oath to the Constitution. And if you're willing to suborn it to yourself, I think that makes you unfit for office."

This comes as Ryan, who helped Trump pass his signature tax cut legislation in 2017, has gradually become more outspoken against him, calling him an "authoritarian" and a "narcissist." Ryan has also said he cannot vote for Trump this year, which has caused the former president to rage against the former speaker on social media.

In one such rant last month, Trump proclaimed: "Rupert Murdoch should fire pathetic RINO Paul Ryan from the Board of Fox. Ryan is a loser, always has been, and always will be. He was the WEAKEST & MOST INCOMPETENT Speaker of the House in its History. Fox will sink to the absolute bottom of the pack if Paul Ryan has anything to do with it!"

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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