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On Tuesday, what was supposed to be a wild — and, for conservative media, potentially gutting — trial ended in a surprise 11th-hour settlement: Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems, who had accused the news giant of slandering them on-air with knowingly false info, about half of what they had asked for. Reaction was mixed. On one hand, at $787.5 million, it’s the largest defamation settlement in history. On the other, Fox News doesn’t even have to apologize or admit fault on-air, effectively forking over money to get away with it.

But perhaps you forgot about Smartmatic, another voting machine company who’s also suing Fox News for the same thing. Their lawsuit is even larger. Dominion sought $1.6 billion. Smartmatic wants $2.7 billion. In case that one slipped your mind, the company put out a statement telling Fox News to get ready.

“Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign,” a spokesperson said, as per The New York Times. “Smartmatic will expose the rest.”

In its complaint, Smartmatic alleged that Fox News aired over 100 false statements. The day after the suit was filed, the network cancelled Lou Dobbs’ show.

No trial date has yet been set, but perhaps they have even more dirt than the ones Dominion made public. Ditto the two lawsuits filed on behalf of former producer Abby Grossberg, who alleges a sexist, manipulative workplace, and has some not nice things to say about Tucker Carlson.

In the meantime, Fox News was caught admitting they lied, further ruining a reputation that was already clearly low amongst other news networks (and leading to the usually detached Jake Tapper to lose it on air). But since they don’t have to admit as much on air, their viewers will probably never know.

(Via NYT)

Michael Jackson was known as the King of Pop, but was he secretly the King of Petty? According to hip-hop media titan Benzino, that might be true. Many stories about the musician have emerged, including how the “Bad” singer was almost run over by actor Jason Bateman on a bicycle. Now, Benzino is sharing one of his own.

During his appearance on The Gauds Show podcast, Benzino revealed that Michael Jackson fully supported his feud with rapper Eminem.

“I knew Mike. I met Mike through Teddy [Riley]. He called me, and he thanked me,” said Benzino. As for what the call was about, he revealed Jackson called him, “Because when Eminem dissed him with the fire situation, in the [‘Just Lose It’] video, Mike called — and I remember his assistant put him on the phone — and I sat there and listened to him. And he thanked me.”

The “Just Lose It” video was released back in 2004. In it, Eminem poked fun at Jackson on several fronts, including his 2005 child molestation trial, rumored plastic surgery, and his hair catching on fire on the set of the infamous 1984 Pepsi commercial.

The feud between Benzino and Eminem is still going strong to this day. Strangely, the former’s daughter, rapper Coi Leray, has said she’s on the side of her dad’s foe.

George Santos may have been caught repeatedly and creatively lying during his House election campaign, but will that stop him from running for a second term? Of course not. Only problem is the serial fabulist’s campaign is already in the red. Luckily there’s a House group set up to help cash-strapped members with this very problem. Unluckily they’re turning their back on the erstwhile Kitara Ravache.

As per Politico, Protect the House, a fundraising committee that helps vulnerable candidates keep their seats, and according to paperwork filed Monday they were ready to dump cash on a number of New York representatives. Santos’ name was not on the list.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, a member of the committee, was asked whether he would support Santos’ re-election campaign. He responded with a laugh, then added that he would “wait and see.”

McCarthy has never formally denounced Santos, but others on the committee have. Santos has tried to spin his infamy, claiming he was an outsider and not an untrustworthy sort who lies about his mom dying in the World Trade Center attacks.

Last week, first quarter fundraising data for Santos’ campaign was released and it was not pretty. In the first three months of 2023, he raised a mere $5,333.26. Worse, he had to refund over $8,000 in donations, meaning his campaign has a net loss of about $3,000. Best of luck with that and with that Nicki Minaj bill.
(Via Politico)

Love Is Blind viewers thought they’d never see the footage of the live reunion special. It was later revealed that this was due to the extreme technical difficulties faced by Netflix. But reality television enthusiasts aren’t the only ones anxious about the streaming giant. A short clip of the show featured in Ye’s (formally known as Kanye West) 2022 Netflix documentary Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy is at the center of a new lawsuit, according to TMZ.

A Chicago woman named Cynthia Love is seeking $30,000 in damages from the three-part series directors Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah as well as Netflix. Love, who had appeared in the video for Ye’s breakout single “Through The Wire,” which was also directed by Simmons, claims in the lawsuit that the extended version of her used in the series shows her in an “altered state” in which she “was not capable of providing consent.”

The defendant alleged that when the footage was first captured, she was compensated $20. Her appearance in the music video was minor as she is seen dancing in what appears to be a restaurant while not in a right state of mind. Love shared that use of the extended footage shows her “dark past” from which she’s worked nearly two decades to escape.

Love insists that she was not personally contacted for consent to use the extended footage, claiming Simmons told her son “he assumed she was dead” instead of trying to contact her before the documentary was released.

De’Aaron Fox has turned himself into a crunch time killer for the upstart Sacramento Kings, and as a result, his efforts late in games are being recognized by the league. As part of the NBA’s rollout of its end of season awards this week, it was announced on TNT on Tuesday evening that Fox has won the inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award.

While there are a myriad of reasons why Sacramento broke its 17-year playoff drought and finished with the 3-seed in the Western Conference, the play of Fox in tense moments late in games was a major reason why. Fox took his game to another level this season, which saw him earn the first All-Star nod of his young career thanks in large part to his fearlessness down the stretch of close games. This has continued through the first two games of the postseason, where Fox has been a menace in the fourth quarter against the Golden State Warriors.

On the year, Fox averaged 25 points on 51.2 percent shooting from the field with 6.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.1 steals in 33.4 minutes a night. Fox beat out two other finalists for the honor: Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler and Chicago Bulls ace DeMar DeRozan.

The NBA announced that this would join its collection of awards prior to the 2022-23 season. Fox joins Jaren Jackson Jr. of the Memphis Grizzlies as award winners this year — Jackson was named Defensive Player of the Year on Monday — while the Coach of the Year and Sixth Man awards will be announced on TNT later this week.

Back in November, singer and rapper Aaron Carter tragically died. For the weeks to follow, close friends and family shared kind words about the musicians and their latest moments with him. His brother, Nick Carter, even took to Instagram to upload a touching message to Aaron’s fans.

“Even though my brother and I have had a complicated relationship, my love for him has never ever faded. I have always held on to the hope that he would somehow, someday, want to walk a healthy path and eventually find the help that he so desperately needed. Sometimes we want to blame someone or something for a loss, but the truth is that addiction and mental illness is the real villain here. I will miss my brother more than anyone will ever know. I love you, Chizz. Now you can finally have the peace you could never find here on earth….I love you, baby brother,” wrote Nick.

Now, nearly six months late, Variety has obtained a document that revealed the pop star’s cause of death. According to the outlet, “Aaron Carter’s death was caused by drowning and the effects of alprazolam (an ingredient used in cans of compressed air), a generic form of Xanax, and inhaling difluoroethane.”

The entertainer was found unresponsive at home and his death was ruled an accident by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office.

The Scream franchise is back and arguably stronger than ever, and usually with a longtime franchise that means lots of callbacks. Problem is, this is a horror franchise, with the requisite high body count. A lot of great and famous actors have been brutally murdered over the seven films, but that hasn’t stopped some of them from wishing to come back, somehow. Drew Barrymore, the first to ever eat it in the series, wants back in. And now so does Scream 3 victim Parker Posey.

As caught by Variety, the legendary actress, who can currently be seen in a memorable role in Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, recently did an interview with ComicBook.com. They asked her what she thought of Barrymore’s pitch, which was that her character was only faking being dead. Posey responded with a similar but less far-fetched idea:

“Well, I did an interview for WNYC Radio, like three weeks ago, for the play I was doing. And they said, ‘Well, there’s some people here that want to say hi.’ And it was the Scream team. And I actually pitched, ‘Can I just be in another dimension and come back? And continue to …’ I hope so. I would love to do that. That was really fun. I can’t believe Wes Craven let me get away with some of the silly stuff I was doing. I loved him, and that was fun.”

Multiverses are hot right now, so why not? Scream isn’t that realistic, so they could get in on the same action as Rick and Morty and the MCU. Besides, Posey is an always welcome presence, so if the Scream team isn’t into going the multiverse route, why not just give her an entirely new character? As Barrymore said about her idea, “With good writing, you can make anything happen.”

(Via Variety and ComicBook.com)

So Fox News isn’t being sued into kingdom come. Their stars won’t have to take the stand and admit what leaked texts and emails have already revealed: that they thought the voter fraud nonsense they were parroting on the air was bunk. Instead of $1.6 billion, as Dominion Voting Systems, sought, the network will only have to fork over $787.5 million — about half. Clips from The Simpsons won’t be played in a courtroom. In a statement on the settlement, Fox News sort of admitted partially lying, while touting their “journalistic standards” — a line that an anchor at one of their rivals couldn’t even say with a straight face.

As per Mediaite, CNN’s Jake Tapper was on the clock when the settlement was reached and when Fox News released their clearly very lawyered-up statement. He tried to stay detached, but this one was tricky.

“Fox putting a positive face on what can only be interpreted as one of the ugliest and most embarrassing moments in the history of journalism,” Tapper told viewers. He then read their statement, and it didn’t take long for him to crack up.

“Fox issued a statement saying, ‘We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute,’” he read, stopping to sarcastically repeat the word “dispute.” He then tried to solider one, but it was tricky.

“‘We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects’ — I’m sorry. This is going to be difficult to say with a straight face,” Tapper said before trying to solider on.

“‘This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,’” Tapper said, making a face at the words “journalistic standards” being touted by a news network busted deceiving their viewers. “‘We are hopeful that our’ — sorry,” he said, now laughing. “‘We are hopeful that our decision to resolve the dispute with Dominion amicably instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.’”

It’s been reported that as part of the settlement Fox News doesn’t have to apologize or even acknowledge their expensive wrongdoing on air, as once expected. Its viewers may never even know that they narrowly avoided both forking over more money and having the likes of Tucker Carlson admitting under oath that they lied. Meanwhile CNN doesn’t get anywhere near the audience Fox News does. But one of their own stars being physically unable to get through words like “journalistic standards” without cracking up may at least go viral and live on to shame them in the future.

(Via Mediaite)

When most people have children, they hope that their own parents will be around to watch them grow up. They’re not often thinking about their own mortality at that stage of life. But sadly, sometimes parents are the ones that don’t get to watch their children grow up, and it’s the grandparents tasked with raising their grandchildren.

Patricia Pouncey is one of those grandparents left caring for her grandchildren after her daughter, Nikita Washington, gave birth to her 12th child on December 22. Washington went into Harper University Hospital in Detroit due to high blood pressure before requiring a cesarean section, according to ABC12. The 35-year-old was at the hospital alone as her mother was caring for her other children and her husband is currently incarcerated.

But after learning of the cesarean, her family did not hear from her again, which prompted her sister to go to the hospital to check on Washington. This is when the family discovered that the mother of 12 had passed away after complications from the surgery.

With Washington’s husband in jail, Pouncey is left as the sole caregiver of the children, now aged 3 months to 19 years old. Taking on a child without warning is a lot to handle, but taking in 12 grieving children while you are also grieving has to feel nearly impossible. But Pouncey has been doing whatever she can to make sure the children continue to stay together in her home, and others have been pitching in to help.

Washington’s sister Daveia Knox started a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses and to assist Pouncey with money to raise the children. So far, the account has raised more than $104K and helped the grandmother purchase a more reliable vehicle and a larger home to house all of the children. The comments on the GoFundMe have been extremely supportive of the grieving family.

“May God strengthen you & bless you with much prosperity to raise your grandchildren without lacking anything! I’m extremely sorry for your loss & pray you got the answers you need. Blessings,” wrote one donor.

“This was such an unexpected tragedy, the generosity & sacrifice of grandma, and to care for the children. May God bless the family and all those who donate in any way they can: money, food, childcare, etc.,” another donor wrote.

There have been donors giving donations of all sizes, from $5 to $3,000, hoping to help the grandma care for her dozen grandchildren. Surely each donation is appreciated and will be used for things like groceries, baby formula, clothing, shoes and other things required to raise children.

Pouncey hasn’t received information on what happened to her daughter while at the hospital that led to her death.

“I haven’t talked to anyone from the hospital. I have not received anything from them. All I have is the death certificate,” the grandmother told CNN.

“If she died naturally, I want to know. If one of them doctors did something, I wanna know that too,” Pouncey told Fox 2 Detroit. “I’m hurt, I’m confused.”

Currently, Black maternal mortality is 2.6 times higher than that of white women, and Black infants are more than twice as likely to die after birth than white infants. Unfortunately, Washington became one of the Black women who make up the statistic, and Pouncey is hoping no other mother has to go through what she is going through.

“I’m worried about every mother,” Pouncey told CNN. “Don’t ever, ever make the mistake that I made, letting your child go (to the hospital) alone. We need to give more attention to what’s going on.”

April 11 to 17, 2023 was Black Maternal Health Week, during which events and campaigns were held to raise awareness around Black maternal mortality rates. The annual week also focuses on programs and initiatives to support Black mothers.

If you’d like to donate to support the family, you can find their GoFundMe here.

Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old high school junior, narrowly survived being shot twice on April 13 after going to the wrong Kansas City address to pick up his younger twin brothers. Yarl had simply rung the doorbell when, with no exchange of words, he was shot in the head by the homeowner Andrew D. Lester, an 84-year-old white man. Lester shot Yarl once more after he fell to the ground. Miraculously, Yarl was able to run away, but he would have to run to multiple homes before finally getting help from a neighbor.

Since the incident, people have rallied to demand justice for the teen, including raising over $2,900,000 on GoFundMe. On the fundraiser page, which was created by his aunt, Faith Spoonmore, Yarl is described as a “fantastic kid,” “ a kind soul,” “quiet,” “friendly,” “well-mannered,” “always willing to help,” “super smart,” and a “musical genius.” He was looking forward to visiting West Africa before attending college, where he planned to balance his love of music with pursuing a major in chemical engineering.

“Life looks a lot different right now,” Spoonmore writes of her nephew. “Even though he is doing well physically, he has a long road ahead mentally and emotionally. The trauma that he has to endure and survive is unimaginable. He is our miracle. We have heard these types of stories many times, and unfortunately, most black boys are not alive to get another chance.”

Spoonmore posted a fundraising goal of $2.5 million to cover Yarl’s medical and therapy expenses. Within a day of the GoFundMe launch, donations began pouring in. Thus far, $2,905,680 has been raised, meeting the family’s goal and adding funds toward Yarl’s college expenses and long-awaited trip to West Africa.

Support for the young man has shown up in other ways as well. An illustrated retelling of Yarl’s story, created by cartoon activist Pan Cooke (aka @thefakepan), went viral online, prompting others to share and demand Lester’s arrest.

See on Instagram

Meanwhile, actual protests mounted in Kansas City. As of Monday, April 17, Lester will face two felony charges—assault in the first degree and armed criminal action. Authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, and Lester turned himself in on April 18.

Spoonmore did give the hopeful update that Yarl is currently at home and able to move around and even communicate. She also wrote that he has been smiling at the kind words being sent to him through emails.

Though Yarl’s family has reached their initial goal, there is indeed still a long road ahead and every bit of support counts. As Spoonmore eloquently put it, “Ralph deserves to have the future that he has dreams about. He deserves to be the light that shows the world that LOVE wins and that humanity is still Good.”

If you are able to donate, you can find Yarl’s GoFundMe page here.