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.

I have just enough information to be dangerous, but the Fox-Dominion settlement – just announced yesterday — is disappointing for me.

In this main respect:  Fox should have been required to apologize on air for its intentional effort to publicize falsehoods about the 2020 election.

Instead, based on reporting this morning, we’ll just have to settle for Fox being required to pay nearly $800 million.  While it’s reported to the largest such settlement in such cases, it’s still not enough given the egregious actions –intentional, no less – by Fox.

Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple wrote about the settlement in the Post today under this headline:  “The big hole in the Dominion-Fox News settlement.”

Here is how he started his column:

“When news of a possible settlement between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News surfaced on Sunday night, pleas from concerned citizens popped up on social media:  Don’t settle this lawsuit, Dominion.  Put all the evidence before a jury.  Drag Fox News hosts and executives to the witness stand.  Grill them on their deceptive programming.

“So, the news Tuesday afternoon that the two parties had settled Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation suit over election disinformation for $787.5 million will disappoint those who longed for a more visceral comeuppance for Fox News.  That’s understandable, considering that Fox News has littered the public square with lies and half-baked stories — essentially mini-Dominions — for 26-plus years.”

Still, Wemple wrote, “the size of the payout, however, speaks to both the journalistic atrocities and the reams of internal correspondence that Dominion pried from Fox News during the pretrial maneuvering.  And yet: It all feels a bit empty.”

Wemple opined that he would have enjoyed the likes of Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, and Rupert Murdoch having to go under the bright lights of the court, including cross examination by Dominion attorneys.

Further, Wemple wrote, “Fox News demonstrated that not even a court record bulging with evidence of perfidy is enough to shame the organization into genuine contrition.”

Fox attorneys said this:  “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems.  We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.  This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.’”

“A commitment to the highest news standards?” 

Laughable.  Fox has none.

And, again, regarding an apology?  No, there will not be one, which Wemple says is “where the emptiness comes in.”

Besides the cost of the settlement for Fox, there is another piece of good news for those of us who value solid journalism and, thus, detest Fox.  It is that Fox faces several more suits charging it with journalistic atrocities that value ratings over facts.

One hopes those, too, will land with a financial thud on Fox’s doorstep.