譯/羅方妤
誹謗案重金和解 批評者認為太便宜福斯
On the surface, Fox News got pummeled.
從表面上看,福斯新聞遭遇重擊。
Rupert Murdoch, its founder, agreed to a settlement of $787.5 million, roughly two-thirds of the Fox Corp.'s net annual income. Fox News was embarrassed by revelations that its anchors privately despised former President Donald Trump. And Dominion Voting Systems, the election technology firm derided on Fox airwaves, declared victory Tuesday on the courthouse steps.
創辦人梅鐸同意付出一筆7億8750萬美元的和解金,相當於福斯新聞年淨收入的三分之二。多名主播被揭發私下表示厭惡美國前總統川普,讓福斯新聞相當尷尬。在福斯節目被嘲笑的多明尼恩投票系統公司,星期二在這項法院和解行動中宣布獲勝。
Yet for some Murdoch critics, the outcome of this landmark libel case fell short of something to celebrate.
然而,對一些梅鐸批評者而言,這一件具有里程碑意義的誹謗案結果並不值得慶祝。
"Rupert Wins Again," declared Politico press critic Jack Shafer, who noted Murdoch's long history of paying tens of millions of dollars to settle claims of phone hacking, workplace harassment and other ignominies.
政治新聞網站Politico媒體評論家薛佛宣布,「梅鐸再次獲勝」,他指出梅鐸長久以來以支付上億美元方式,解決電話竊聽、職場騷擾和其他醜聞。
"Country lost, democracy lost," First Amendment lawyer Martin Garbus wrote in an email, predicting that Fox hosts Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo would be feted by conservatives as "heroes" who "stood up against the liberal world."
美國憲法第一修正案律師加布斯在電郵裡寫道,「國家輸了,民主輸了」,並預測福斯主播卡爾森和瑪麗亞.巴帝羅默將被保守派奉為「起身反抗自由派世界的英雄」。
Others lamented what they perceived to be a lost opportunity for a legal reckoning for the misinformation that has poisoned many Americans' trust in the democratic process.
其他人則感嘆,他們失去了對假訊息進行法律清算的機會,這些假訊息毒害美國人對民主進程的信任。
"Great win for democracy? I don't know about that," said MSNBC host Joy Reid, who told viewers that Fox News "saved their stars from having to take the witness stand and answer questions about all those embarrassing texts and revelations."
MSNBC節目主持人喬伊.里德表示,「民主的重大勝利?我看不出來」。她告訴觀眾,福斯新聞「讓他們的明星們不用被送上證人席,回答那些令人尷尬的簡訊和被揭露的內情等問題」。
Three-quarters of a billion dollars is no small sum, even for Murdoch, and Fox is still facing a similar defamation suit from another elections firm, Smartmatic, which has asked for $2.7 billion in damages. (Dominion initially demanded $1.6 billion.) The network has often argued that its newsroom is walled off from ideological forces, but emails that were revealed in the case made clear that top executives had rebuked their own journalists who tried to fact-check Trump.
即使對梅鐸而言,超過7.5億美元的和解金也不是個小數目。福斯還面臨另一家選舉科技公司Smartmatic提出的類似誹謗訴訟,求償27億美元,而多明尼恩投票系統公司最初求償16億美元。福斯新聞網常辯稱,他們的新聞編輯室不受意識形態力量影響,但案件中揭露的電郵顯示,福斯新聞高階主管斥責試圖對川普進行事實核查的自家記者。
Still, Fox News was not required under the terms of the settlement to issue an on-air apology for the baseless claims it aired about Dominion, asserting the company had tried to rig the 2020 presidential election in Joe Biden's favor. And Fox's public statement about the settlement was hardly an apology.
福斯新聞對多明尼恩公司做出毫無根據的指控,聲稱多明尼恩試圖操縱2020年總統大選以利拜登。儘管如此,根據和解條款,福斯新聞不需直播道歉,而福斯發表關於和解案的公開說明很難被認為是道歉。
"We acknowledge the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false," the network wrote, adding, with Murdochian defiance, "This settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards."
福斯新聞網寫道,「我們承認法院判決,關於多明尼恩的某些說法是錯的」,他們又以梅鐸風格的反抗補充說,「這項和解反映了福斯對最高新聞標準的持續承諾」。