Lachlan Murdoch Drops Defamation Claim Against Australian News Site Following Dominion Settlement

Marilyn Manson‘s defamation case against Evan Rachel Wood.Manson — real name Brian Warner — filed a defamation lawsuit against Westworld actor Wood back in March 2022 after she accused him of grooming, manipulation and “horrific abuse”.Part of the lawsuit claimed that Manson’s former fiancee Wood and Illma Gore — the latter of whom was described as Wood’s “on-again, off-again romantic partner” in the lawsuit — “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously with allegations of rape and abuse against Warner”.Wood responded at the time that she was “not scared” of Manson’s defamation lawsuit, adding that “this is part of the retaliation that keeps survivors quiet”.Yesterday (May 9), Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Teresa A. Beaudet rejected Manson’s claims that Wood pressured “multiple women to make false accusations” against him and fabricated an FBI letter to back up her allegations (via Los Angeles Times).Beaudet also dismissed a section that alleged Wood and Gore used a checklist for other women to use to make claims of abuse.The court found that Manson had not “demonstrated a probability of prevailing on his claims based on alleged defamation against Wood”.“We are very pleased with the Court’s ruling, which affirms and protects Evan’s exercise of her fundamental First Amendment rights,” Wood’s lead attorney, Michael Kump, told Deadline.

Shock rocker Marilyn Manson just got a legal shock as a California judge tossed out most of the fading musician’s defamation case against Evan Rachel Wood over the Westworld actress’ claims of abuse during the former couple’s relationship.

No one was expecting an apology and in fact Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch applauded “the highest journalistic standards” displayed at Fox News, saying the near $800 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems was a business decision made to resolve the dispute and “avoid the acrimony of multi-year litigation.”

$787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems during the media giant’s fiscal third quarter earnings call on Tuesday. “We made the business decision to resolve this dispute and avoid the acrimony of a divisive trial and a multi-year appeal process, a decision clearly in the best interest of the company and its shareholders,” Murdoch told analysts and investors.

Tuesday’s earnings call, but referred to Fox News programming overall as a “successful strategy” before clarifying that there are no plans to further shake things up.“As regards to our programming strategy in primetime, there’s no change to our programming strategy at Fox News,” Murdoch said. “It’s obviously a successful strategy.

Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch says Fox Corp. is in a good place despite the ongoing WGA strike given its mix of programming.

Fox Corp. said it swung to a $50 million loss last quarter from a $290 million profit the year before mostly due to the cost of a legal settlement with Dominion Voting Services.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The costs of settling a closely scrutinized defamation lawsuit levied by Dominion Voting Systems wiped out profit at Fox Corp., spurring a loss of more than $50 million in its third fiscal quarter despite seeing increases in revenue from advertising and distribution. The costs of setting the suit — Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle claims that Fox News personalities had deliberately passed along erroneous information about Dominion’s role in the 2020 presidential election — that it offset a 43% gain in advertising during the quarter due to Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl LVII, typically an event that boosts corporate performance year in and year out. Fox posted a loss of $54 billion, compared to profit of $283 billion in the year-earlier period. It attributed the loss to “charges associated with legal settlement costs at Fox News Media.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor How much should it cost to end media scrutiny on the internal workings of a news organization? Fox Corp. thinks an outlay of $787.5 million ought to be sufficient. In a letter filed Wednesday with the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, an attorney for Fox Corp. sought to keep redactions intact in documents supporting the case, and pressed a judge to keep media organizations from being able to examine the evidence further. “Fox agreed to settle this case to buy peace and bring an end to the media spectacle that the case had become,” says Katherine L. Mowery, an attorney representing Fox Corp. in its bid to quell further releases pertaining to its recent defamation settlement agreement with ballot-technology firm Dominion Voting Corp.

Sophia Scorziello editor The common denominator between the Menéndez brothers and one Menudo band member is a grievous one. In 1996, Lyle and Erik Menéndez were sentenced to life in prison for the murder of their parents, José and Kitty Menéndez. Throughout the sensationalized televised trial, the Beverly Hills brothers alleged that their father Jose had subjected them to years of sexual abuse, which motivated the murders. The prosecution maintained a firm argument that the boys killed José and Kitty for mere financial gain. Now, three decades later, Peacock’s new three-part docuseries “Menéndez + Menudo: Boys Betrayed” reveals Roy Rosselló’s corroborating claim that he was also sexually abused by the former RCA executive and father of the Menéndez brothers José Menendez.

Endeavor Group Holdings CEO Ari Emanuel, whose bonus-laden $308 million pay package turned heads in 2021, made $19.1 million in 2022, according to the company’s latest proxy filing.

Brian Kilmeade will host Fox News Tonight on Monday and is expected to address the exit of Tucker Carlson from the network.

Lever News, which first reported the write-off potential and set the deduction at $213 million, noted that the IRS has ruled multiple times that settlements payments can be deducted.The settlement reached Tuesday will result the largest-known defamation payout in U.S. history, after Fox agreed to the deal at the last minute.

Fox Corporation’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems during an appearance on CNN with host Anderson Cooper on Wednesday, arguing that the conclusion of the $1.6 billion legal fight won’t result in meaningful change at the conservative news channel. “I don’t think this will change the way Fox does news, and therefore I don’t think it will change the way viewers view them,” she told Cooper. Carlson, who reached her own $20 million settlement after suing then-Fox CEO and chairman Roger Ailes for sexual harassment, said she was surprised that the case with Dominion went on for as long as it did.

required to admit any wrongdoing or apologize.So it is that on Wednesday’s “The Late Show” that Stephen Colbert gave something to the CBS audience that neither the judge in the Dominion case nor Dominion’s army of lawyers cared to do: an apology from Fox News.Of course, it wasn’t a real apology. Fox News hasn’t even really covered the trial or the settlement, let alone owned up to the massive volume of lies it told about the 2020 election.

Frank Ocean is no longer set to headline the second weekend of Coachella after a divisive and poorly received performance last Sunday.A rep for the singer released a statement to ET confirming, «Frank Ocean will not be performing at weekend 2 of Coachella.»«After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity.»The rep's statement said that, «on doctor’s advice,» Ocean will not perform again «due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.»The statement included remarks from Ocean himself, who commented on his first weekend set, sharing, «It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox Corp. has put increasing amounts of money behind news and sports in recent years. But that doesn’t mean the company is completely free of drama. A landmark $787.5 million settlement made Tuesday between Fox and the voting-technology company Dominion Voting Systems does not end what is likely to be a period of tumult for the owner of Fox News Channel and the Fox broadcasting network. The payment to Dominion to keep an explosive investigation into how Fox News disseminated conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election out of the public sphere does nothing to alleviate another wave of scrutiny likely to come from another, similar lawsuit.

reached a settlement in their $1.6 billion defamation battle on Tuesday, “The Daily Show” guest host Jordan Klepper had some guesses as to what the network will be doing to make sure their debt is paid off — including “[putting] down Sean Hannity.”Dominion settled the suit against Fox News for $787.5 million, almost exactly half of what they were suing for. In the end, Fox didn’t apologize for the claims, and didn’t actually admit to knowingly lying to their viewers, but said, “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” On Tuesday night, Klepper lamented that the case didn’t go to trial, joking that he was really looking forward to seeing the testimonies given by Fox News hosts.

Let the gloating begin.

CNN’s Jake Tapper stridently referred to Fox News paying $787.5 million Tuesday to settle a looming legal case about Fox News’ false characterizations of Dominion Voting Systems’ equipment in regard to the 2020 election as “one of the ugliest and most embarrassing moments in the history of journalism.”