Settlement(s): 365k, 725 million, 787.5 million in last 3 hours
Settlement(s): 365k, 725 million, 787.5 million in last 3 hours
Announcement of settlement(s) in last 3 hours, awkwardly, same day of Tax Day in U.S., deadline to files of taxes
1)
Facebook earned more than $110 billion last year by selling advertisements targeted at its users, powered by the data Facebook collected from them.
Now, Facebook users have the chance to collect something back.
A federal judge has tentatively approved an agreement between Facebook’s parent company, Meta, and lawyers for U.S. Facebook users to settle multiple class-action lawsuits brought in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018. Meta denies the allegations that it shared users’ data with third parties without permission, but it has nevertheless agreed to pay $725 million into a fund to settle the cases.
Final approval of the settlement isn’t expected for several months, but the preliminary decision opened the door for U.S. Facebook users to file claims — in essence, putting themselves in line for whatever money is paid. How much you collect will depend on three factors: how big the attorney fees and expenses are, how many of the estimated 240 million U.S. Facebook users file claims, and how many years you spent on Facebook.
The proposed settlement would give 25% of the fund to the plaintiffs’ attorneys for legal fees, plus an unspecified amount for legal expenses. That will leave something less than $544 million to be split among those who file claims.
2)
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday said it had reached a settlement with General Motors Co (GM.N) to resolve the department's allegation that the automaker discriminated against non-U.S. citizens.
Under the terms of the agreement, the Detroit-based company will pay $365,000 in civil penalties to the United States, the Justice Department said in a statement.
GM in a statement said it had cooperated with the investigation and was committed to a discrimination-free workplace.
"There was no formal determination that GM engaged in discrimination and we make no admission of wrongdoing, but we welcome this resolution as an opportunity both to avoid litigation and to refine and clarify our internal administrative processes to further improve the employee experience," GM spokeswoman Maria Raynal said in an email.
A Justice Department investigation found that until at least September 2021, GM's export compliance assessments unnecessarily required lawful permanent residents to provide an unexpired foreign passport as a condition of employment, imposing a discriminatory barrier on them in the hiring process, the department said.
The agreement reached on Tuesday requires GM to train its personnel on the law's requirements, revise its employment policies and be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements.
3)
Mitt Romney on Fox settlement with Dominion: “Clearly you don’t agree to pay someone three quarters of a billion dollars unless you think there’s a real risk you’re going to lose.
The most popular — headline news today, of course settlement Dominion - Fox.
As part of the terms of its settlement, Fox News will *not* have to acknowledge ON AIR that it told lies about Dominion in the wake of the 2020 election. Fox did acknowledge falsehoods in its statement. But don't expect hosts to have to read statements. Fox News reached a last-minute settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, which accused Fox News of pushing conspiracies that harmed the company.
Rupert Murdoch himself demanded the firing of Fox political analyst Chris Stirewalt, who had delivered part of the news of Donald Trump's 2020 defeat, as Fox scrambled mollify Trump and his supporters.
Now Stirewalt wants to know: Who will Fox fire as a result of the company’s $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
To give an idea of how large the settlement in Dominion v Fox News is ($787.5M), that represents roughly 64% of Fox News’s net operating income from last year. That’s a heavy hit for any organization. No organization is going to pay through the nose like that - especially since there are almost certain non-monetary settlement considerations as well - unless they’re in a vice. Legitimately damaging enough that someone is going to assuredly try a shareholder derivative suit next. The other reason why a settlement for Dominion was the right decision for them - other than it representing roughly 50 years of profit for them - is that whatever the awards by the jury would be might’ve gotten slashed on appeal and SCOTUS may have sided with Fox.
“The part that I'm interested in seeing is: What does the apology sound like? Who gets fired? What are the consequences inside the company?” the former Fox News political director said in an interview with Semafor after the settlement. “Fox was looking to reset after the 2020 election. This sort of froze their approach in place,” he said. “Now that this is resolved, obviously, they have to think about the next lawsuit in the pipeline with Smartmatic. It will be interesting to see what new approach they take.”
No one is happy blowing nearly $800M (especially Fox’s insurance carrier)
Fox News will survive a $787 million settlement. That said, it is a very painful amount. This is not a nuisance payment. And I'd be shocked if there weren't changes to its editorial standards because this is real money. No expect that Fox will suddenly shift political perspectives or even satisfy the minimum expectations of its critics. But there will be more legal vetting and supervision of on-air claims, if only due to insurer requirements (if it could get insured anymore). Also be shocked if there was not a massive change in how the employees communicate. The emails and texts were absolutely devastating for this case
KNOW MORE
Stirewalt was one of two senior political editors who were forced out of Fox after the network was the first to project that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump in Arizona, a call that enraged many of the network’s Trump supporting viewers and personalities. The projection angered many important figures at Fox, including Fox Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, who privately suggested to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott that the duo be fired to send a message of loyalty to Trump allies.
The former Fox News political director’s testimony in the Dominion case was key to the company’s argument that Fox News hosts and personalities broadly knew that claims being made on the Fox News air were dubious, but allowed guests such as Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell to continue to make appearances on Fox programs anyway.
Stirewalt said he was not surprised that Fox News settled the case, citing the unpredictability and discomfort of putting figures like Murdoch or host Maria Bartiromo on the stand.
“The enjoyment that Fox’s many detractors took in watching the squirming — the discovery came out, and all of those things — was inevitably going to be disappointing,” said Stirewalt, now a political editor and contributor with NewsNation and the Dispatch. “This is a specific kind of lawsuit. This is not an episode of Matlock or like Scooby Doo where at the end they're gonna pull the mask off and it's Rupert Murdoch. And he's gonna say, ‘You got me.’”
The editor would not say whether he’ll be deposed in a similar lawsuit from voting company Smartmatic, which is also suing Fox over false claims made about its voting systems in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. But he said that he was increasingly tired of reliving the saga, which saw him face criticism from colleagues and Fox News audiences.
“I am sick to death of this story. For me, as a journalist, being part of the story is not where I want to be. I want to cover the story. I want to analyze the story. I want to talk about politics and I want to do that stuff,” he said. “I guess I put it this way: I've been given the opportunity to relive a very difficult three month period in my life over and over for three years. In front of Congress, depositions, on and on. I will be pleased when that is over.”
ROOM FOR DISAGREEMENT
$787 million is one of the largest media settlements in American history. But the money and the embarrassment of the discovery documents could be the only real repercussions Fox faces from the trial.
CNN reported that Fox News would not have to apologize on air for its coverage of the 2020 election and Dominion’s voting machines. And the settlement number barely moved the parent company’s stock price on Tuesday, suggesting that investors were not shocked by the payout number.
Fox may also have substantial insurance coverage, but those details remain secret.
During the Semafor Media Summit, Barry Diller, who founded the Fox TV network with Murdoch, said he didn’t think the Dominion lawsuit would have a real impact on the Fox News founder.
"So what? They'll pay it," the billionaire Hollywood and tech executive told Semafor editor-in-chief Ben Smith at the Semafor Media Summit on Monday. "What is it going to do? Is it going to worsen Rupert Murdoch's reputation? I mean, good luck to you.”
NOTABLE
There could still be revelations from Fox News’ legal troubles over its coverage of the 2020 election. This week Smartmatic subpoenaed Ex-Fox News producer Abby Grossberg as part of its lawsuit against Fox, asking her to produce records of communication about claims aired on Fox about the election.
Some mainstream data journalists and polling analysts have said that although Biden did win Arizona, Fox’s call was still premature.
Rupert Murdoch's history settling scandalous claims
--$139 million in 2013 over phone hacking by London tabloid.
--$90 million in 2017 over sexual harassment by Roger Ailes & Bill O’Reilly.
--$787.5 million to avoid being found guilty of "actual malice"