Defamation suit against Tucker Carlson dismissed because he does not "state facts"

[fredtoast]

Best part about this story is that the defense that Carlson is a joke was presented by the lawyers for Fox Network.



https://www.businessinsider.com/fox-news-karen-mcdougal-case-tucker-carlson-2020-9

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit against Fox News after lawyers for the network argued that no "reasonable viewer" takes the primetime host Tucker Carlson seriously.

The case was brought by the former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said Carlson defamed her on his show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight," by saying she extorted President Donald Trump "out of approximately $150,000 in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair,"

Fox News argued that Carlson "cannot be understood to have been stating facts, but instead that he was delivering an opinion using hyperbole for effect," the ruling said.

US District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil agreed with Fox's premise, adding that the network "persuasively argues" that "given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer 'arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statements he makes."

"This 'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that he is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary,'" the ruling said.


And just for some icing on the cake, the very day that the judge released this ruling Carlson said on his show that  "every story" told of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Jacob Blake, and other victims of police brutality is "at its core" a lie.

[Benton]

Personally, I see that as the problem.

Reasonable people say 'who cares what guys like Carlson and Limbaugh say, nobody takes that stuff seriously?'

Then you open up Twitter and there's the POTUS or some Congress member quoting Carlson verbatim.