This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

The headline on this blog may be a bit premature, but I hope it’s true.

Fox “News” – note that I put the word “news” in quotes because what Fox does is not news.  It is pablum for the far right.

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote these early paragraphs under the headline above:

“It’s not just Democrats who believe that Fox News hosts and their guests lied repeatedly about Dominion Voting System efforts to ‘steal’ the 2020 election.  It’s also the opinion of Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis.

“Davis, in a ruling on Friday regarding Dominion’s defamation suit against the network, held that on 20 occasions, Fox made false accusations that Dominion tampered with voting results.

“Through its extensive proof, Dominion has met its burden of showing there is no genuine issue of material fact as to falsity.  Since Fox never disputed falsity, Davis concluded: “The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.”

Thus, Fox’s motion for summary judgment was rejected, meaning the suit will now go to trial.

Then, another Post columnist, Eugene Robinson, chimed in:

“’Fox News’ is a misnomer.  Rupert Murdoch’s cable network isn’t really a news organization.  It just plays one on television — and deserves to lose the $1.6 billion Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit that soon will go to trial.”

Fox’s lawyers and executives have suggested that Fox wasn’t responsible for what its star hosts said.  Davis, the judge, flatly rejected that notion.

“Fox News Network is not a passive entity.  It controls what is broadcast on its various networks.  It does this through its employees as agents of the network.  Fox did in fact publish the statements to its viewers.”

Fox, Rubin reported, also claimed it is protected by a “neutral report” privilege — that is, it can repeat false statements that are “newsworthy.”

New York law does not recognize such a defense, Davis said.  Moreover, he found, “Even if the neutral report privilege did apply, the evidence does not support that Fox conducted good-faith, disinterested reporting.  Failure to reveal extensive contradicting evidence from the public sphere and Dominion itself indicates its reporting was not disinterested.”

Without trying to come across as a lawyer – I am not — Fox’s arguments appear weak.  It claims there’s a difference between not knowing something is true and knowing it’s false.  But running something without any evidence that it is true sounds like the very definition of malice — i.e., reckless disregard for the truth.

And malice is important.  To win, Dominion must prove malice – that Fox reported false statements as if they were true and did so with malice.

In the end, it will be up to the jury still to decide the issue of malice.

Rubin ends her column this way:

“The pretense that Fox is a real news organization is being blown to smithereens — as is a great deal of the right’s narrative about everything from stolen elections to race to immigration.  Discredit Fox, and you discredit a huge portion of the right-wing echo chamber and the MAGA pols who thrive in it.

“Credible media, elected officials and voters can now stop treating Fox as a legitimate news outlet.  If Fox doesn’t believe its own propaganda, why should anyone else?”

Agreed.