Image of the week: Dominion delight
Hugs, high-fives and smiles the size of Rupert Murdoch’s Montana cattle ranch were on display this week outside the Delaware superior court where Fox News, part of Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, made a last-minute settlement in the $1.6 billion (€1.5 billion) defamation lawsuit taken against it by Dominion Voting Systems.
Dominion walked away with a whopping $787.5 million payment from Fox, which defamed the voting machine company in its coverage of the 2020 US presidential election result.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and the customers that we serve,” said chief executive John Poulos. “Nothing can ever make up for that.”
But $787.5 million will help, right?
“Money is accountability and we’ve got that today from Fox,” said Stephen Shackelford, one of Dominion’s lawyers, as delight radiated from the legal team. Elsewhere, however, there was disappointment that the Fox operation would not be subjected to the thorough gutting of a full trial and there will be no witness box appearance from Murdoch himself.
“This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” said Fox News – a statement that CNN’s Jake Tapper told viewers he would find difficult to read with a straight face. He duly broke into laughter soon after.
In numbers: Roy pads
$29 million
Price tag on the Manhattan penthouse used by the makers of HBO drama Succession as the home of Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong). The Upper East Side triplex, now up for sale, comes with a rooftop terrace overlooking the city.
$38 million
For those on “Team Roman”, the Upper West Side penthouse apartment of Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) is also on the market, though sadly this one only has four bedrooms, not five. Panoramic views included.
5%
Drop in the average sales price for Manhattan real estate – which typically involves more cramped affairs than the Roys’ gaffs – in the first quarter of 2023. Alas, that average sales price is still comfortably above $1 million.
Getting to know: Coronation quiche
How keen are people in Britain about the coronation of King Charles in May? According to YouGov, the answer is not a lot. Only 9 per cent say they care “a great deal” and 24 per cent “a fair amount”, with both groups outnumbered by the 35 per cent who responded “not very much” and the 29 per cent who said “not at all”.
Such apathy does not bode well for the chances of Britain celebrating the occasion by making “coronation quiche” – a new culinary request from Charles and Camilla. The recipe has already unleashed a new wave of republicanism, thanks in the main to the controversial inclusion of broad beans, while recent egg shortages in British supermarkets haven’t exactly enamoured shoppers to the logistical challenge of a quiche either.
The day after the choice of dish was announced, new figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the price of food and non-alcoholic drink accelerated by an annual 19.1 per cent in March. This is the highest rate of food inflation since 1977 – or, as royalists know it, silver jubilee year.
The list: What’s new with Netflix?
Streaming giant Netflix announced its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, missing Wall Street analysts’ estimates by only adding 1.75 million subscribers. But what else did Netflix-watchers learn from what the company said?
1. Upbeat tone: The stock market might have given its update the big thumbs-down, but Netflix itself said it was off to “a good start” to the year, adding that its focus would remain on building “a wildly successful business”.
2. Password sharing: Netflix plans to start cracking down on password sharing between households in the US, its largest market, in the next couple of months – or “roll out paid sharing”, as it puts it.
3. Writers’ strike: The streamer doesn’t want the Writers Guild of America to go on strike, as it is poised to do, but, if it does, it has a “robust” slate of content coming soon anyway.
4. Release strategy: Netflix won’t be embracing cinemas any more closely than it currently does, according to co-chief executive Ted Sarandos: “Driving folks to a theatre is just not our business.”
5. Death of DVDs: The original Netflix rental business, which began 25 years ago after a customer was posted a copy of Beetlejuice on DVD, will ship its final disc on September 29th. Rest in peace.
