Fox News Lawsuit Settlement Riles Colbert: ‘Dammit! I Want My Trial!’
Fox News Channel‘s defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems caused quite a stir on late-night TV Tuesday, as many hosts couldn’t help but take jabs at the $787.5 million the news organization agreed to fork over stemming from the cable network’s false election-rigging claims. The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert, for one, couldn’t help but hide his (comical) disappointment.
Commenting on the news network averting a trial, the show tweeted: “Even more disappointing, Fox News will not have to acknowledge on air that it told lies about Dominion in the wake of the 2020 election.”
“Dammit! I want my trial!” Colbert exclaimed on his show Tuesday night. “You were supposed to provide me with six weeks of delicious content. I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames!”
The host acknowledged that the settlement — though lucrative for Dominion — does “nothing for our democracy. What we need is Fox News personalities to look straight into the camera and admit that they lied over and over again about the 2020 election and then hurl themselves into Mount Doom!”
Watch the rest of Colbert’s reaction below:
Fox News settled their defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems, averting a trial. Even more disappointing, Fox News will not have to acknowledge on air that it told lies about Dominion in the wake of the 2020 election. #Colbert pic.twitter.com/t29bv1Msfn
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) April 19, 2023
Colbert certainly wasn’t the only host to tackle the issue. Jimmy Kimmel chimed in saying, “No company in America had a worse day than Fox News today. It’s gonna take a lot of reverse-mortgage ads to pay that one off!”
He continued: “I also wanna say ‘nice going’ to Dominion. We naively thought this was about making Fox News take responsibility for destroying their reputation because that’s what they told us it was about. But no, they took the money instead, which means the liars who knowingly misled their oatmeal-brained viewers and seriously damaged our democracy don’t have to say anything about it at all… while Dominion and their lawyers go shopping for yachts, I guess.”
Additionally, CNN’s Jake Tapper could barely hold it together as he attempted to read Fox News’ official statement on the settlement. He unleashed a small chuckle and paused for a bit while trying to get the words out. “I’m sorry this is going to be difficult to say with a straight face,” he said before continuing to read Fox’s words. “‘This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our dec-,'” Tapper laughed before trying to regain his composure and finish the statement.
Watch CNN’s clip below:
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Colbert was the very first person I thought of the moment the settlement was announced – and his reaction/consternation is a mirror reflection of my own feelings. All I really wanted was to see the forever lying Faux anchors and media moguls being pilloried on the witness stand. I needed their abject humiliation on display for weeks without end. I share Colbert’s crushing and all too real disappointment!
Many Fox viewers just want to hear what they believe. The fact that it is not true doesn’t matter. It’s why Fox lied. If Fox doesn’t say what they want to hear then the viewers will just turn to Newsmax or OAN. Fox saw that they were losing ratings when they correctly called Arizona for Biden first ahead of all other news outlets. To stop the loss of viewers they embraced the stolen election conspiracy.
The late night shows will be halting production when the writer’s strike begins on May 1, so they would have missed most of the trial anyway.
Colbert is the biggest AH on Late night. Oh wait, forgot about Kimmel, and Cordon, and…….I miss Johnny, and even Jay!
Just watch the guy on Fox news at 11PM whatever his name is.
Absolutely
Me too Stephen. It’s okay buddy. Round two might be coming up soon.
As Yoda once said, “There is another…”
Smartmatic is coming up eventually…
The Smartmatic Strikes Back or The Last Settlement? I liked Revenge of MAGA even though it ended on a downer.
There is also the benefit that Fox settled so they might have made themselves a bigger target now. Think of all the people that have been hurt because of the false election claims and they can use this settlement as a stepping stone. States might sue for the costs of recounts or the people at the Capitol on Jan 6th. Then this could also be enough that this could have places remove Fox from public televisions.
If they went the full trial Fox would probably have appealed for years so Dominion gets relief now and with what has leaked I think should have helped their reputation for those that were open to the possibility that Fox lied.
Most likely Fox will settle Smartmatic and the other lawsuits with individuals who are suing them.
We still have Dominion’s lawsuits against Sidney Powell, Michael Lindell ( the pillow guy), and Rudy Giuliani to look forward to. They were the ones who went on Fox to spread the conspiracy.
Now Mike Lindell trial I would pay good money to see.
Take the Tiger King, mix a bit of court tv, throw in Bible quotes, add a dash slow train crash in a blender and you get the My Pillow Guy Trial.
When oh when will there actually be a legal standard for a network to call itself “News”? It should require a good faith effort to report the truth, and to amend errors quickly. Fox is maybe an “Information Network”? And that’s generous.
Aw, so sorry Fake Catholic. Boo boo
I’m 100% with Colbert! I wanted Faux to have to publicly admit that it’s a piece of sheet. Also Colbert: HOW COULD YOU HAVE JOSH GROBAN ON AND NOT HAVE/LET HIM SING?????
.
That Tapper clip is everything.