If we want to be brutally frank here, every dispute in the history of the world across every civilization that has ever existed boils down to one simple concept: "What the f'k are you gonna do about it?" Tribal leader decides to take your possessions? Wtf... Country X rapes and pillages country Y? Wtf... And so on. If someone wins a $6T lawsuit in the US against China, you just know someone in China will win a $10T against same. So now what? China has enough leverage (e.g. rare earth minerals, t-bills, etc) to dissuade any action against it, but, then again, so does the US (e.g. a massive nuclear arsenal). Both countries will be like wtf... to the other.
Fox News (or any other network for that matter), now that's a different story. Even still, good luck with that. Say you and I start the FBN Conspiracy Nutcase Network. We find some nutcase who thinks the earth is flat who says all he needs to prove as such is launch himself into space. We say "go for it!" He builds his rocket, shoots into the sky (yay!) and then accidentally ejects (uh oh) and then becomes a flat earth pancake (oops). Are we liable? We simply say, hey, we "report" the news. Heck, say we report on some guy who swears on a Bible that he's never been sick a day in his life because he takes snake oil every day. Then a bunch of people die trying to make homemade snake oil. Our fault?
That being said, all the above is dependent on proving willful negligence that resulted in damages. I can see another avenue: an agenda. For example, if someone could prove FBNCNN was actually not just reporting the news, but trying to push an agenda that colored everything we reported. It could be a politician, a religion, a business, whatever. In other words, we no longer can claim an arms-length distance between us and our subjects. That's where Fox is most vulnerable IMO. That being said, even if one were to prove an agenda, if the people on the jury see nothing wrong with that agenda, wtf...
- Jeff |
