“Come on,” CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said Tuesday in response to a bold claim made by Fox News after Dominion agreed to pay nearly $800 million to the voting system.
Fox News was sued for defamation by Dominion, of course, because as part of the conservative network’s support of Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election, it has accused guests and even network hosts of to falsely claim that Dominion had manipulated the election results. During the discovery phase of the lawsuit, a mountain of evidence emerged that proved Fox News knew the claims were false. Still, it continued to fight the lawsuit until Tuesday, when Fox and Dominion reached a settlement just before the jury trial was to begin.
In a statement released as part of the settlement, Fox admitted no wrongdoing and it did not apologize to Dominion. The closest it came was a passive, “we accept the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
Shortly thereafter, Fox said, “This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.” and Cooper, as you can see in the video above (via asin on twitter), to put it mildly, found that particular claim untenable.
“As for the second part of that statement, that this settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” Cooper said on Tuesday’s episode of his CNN show. “As Mike Wallace used to say when interviewing someone who talks nonsense, ‘Come on.'”
Cooper continued, “What we have learned from the statements, texts and emails released by Dominion in the lead-up to this matter is that there was no commitment to even basic journalistic standards where the 2020 election was concerned.” Wasn’t.”
“The Fox anchors said one thing to viewers — they were afraid they might desert them. Go to some more conservative news channel and text and email each other off the air another thing,” Cooper concluded.
As the defamation trial was about to begin, some of Fox’s biggest names such as Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram were expected to testify. Additionally, Robert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, was expected to take the witness stand.
Cooper wasn’t the only person surprised by Fox’s statement. Earlier in the day, CNN hosted Jake Tapper laugh during his show “The Lead” when he read that line in the statement to Fox News.
“I’m sorry. It would be difficult to say so directly.’
“It’s hard to say with a straight face.” Jake Tapper laughs as he reads Fox News’ statement on their “journalistic standards.” (Video: CNN) pic.twitter.com/ddmlxd3tqi
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) April 18, 2023