You may think having to pay $787.5 million for defamation damages is a serious defeat. Chastening. Humiliating. A kick in the nuts for Rupert Murdoch, so soon after he ditched his fiancée of all of two weeks, but only after he had handed her a diamond ring worth $2 million. Which she’s keeping. Fox News, which has nothing to do with news, not even at all, has just had to settle for that very large sum with Dominion, a company that makes voting machines for US elections. In 2020, after Trump was given a good kicking and lost the presidential election, a collection of people who ordinarily would be in straitjackets chained to a wall somewhere, appeared on Fox News to maintain that Dominion has fiddled the votes using some sort of incomprehensible laser system operating from somewhere above Italy, and had turned votes for Trump into votes for Biden. The hosts of the evening programmes, which don’t even pretend to be news, allowed this bollocks to be repeated with hardly a raised eyebrow, let alone interlocution to the effect of ‘are you raving fucking mad, just sit there quietly while I call 911’. Fox viewers lapped it up, just as they swallowed whole the other lies peddled by Trump and his minions on Fox News and other Looneytunes right wing news outlets. That was bad but what made it worse is that evidence produced for the trial showed that the main presenters did not believe a word of it, but spewed it out anyway. And not just them but the managers and the owners, the Murdoch family, who knew this to be preposterous, but allowed it to go on for fear of their viewers deserting them for the other Looneytunes channels. Indeed, the mere fact that Fox News was first to call Arizona for Biden on election night caused outrage at the White House and on the executive floors at Fox for what was seen as disloyal behaviour which would piss off the faithful and cause them to get their lies elsewhere.
Dominion sued for $1.6 billion which is about 20 times what the company is actually worth even when it is doing well. Fox tried to swagger it out, hiding behind the first amendment. When that didn’t work, it maintained that it was not endorsing these views, but airing them as a matter of public interest. The judge was having none of it, leaving the only issue for the jury to decide as whether Fox knew that these were lies, but broadcast them anyway, which of course it did. Before the evidence was called, Fox wrote the cheque. But it didn’t have to apologise. It didn’t have to admit it deliberately lied. It didn’t have to tell its viewers that it led them by the nose because it’s what they wanted to hear. In other words, while pretending to inform them about the truth, it kept lying to them knowingly to ensure that the viewing figures stayed high and the advertisers kept pumping their money in.
So yes, $787.5 million is a hell of a lot of money. And yes, Donald Trump will be extremely upset that the company caved instead of backing him up. Not that he has to pay the bill because of course Trump doesn’t pay the bill himself. Ever. Fox will make that money back because it will keep spoon feeding the viewers the lies they want to call the truth and its disgusting star presenters, on millions of dollars a year, will keep on pretending that they are enlightening the people they despise. Even though Rupert Murdoch has had a bad 2023 so far, there is still plenty of money to be made, and that is all that matters.
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We begin our review of the week’s wanky wear with Mrs Maisel, aka actor Rachel Brosnahan, wearing Thom Browne.
Oh dear. Oh very dear. Haute couture meets naughty Scottish schoolgirl going peekaboo in tartan offcuts and ankle socks. Seriously? Rachel would have done better to go onto Amazon and buy a sexy schoolgirl outfit for about 20 bucks.
Here is actor Katie Holmes wearing something silly.
So this is a lady tennis player with an old curtain wrapped around her but with a crotch cutout like a draped entrance to the Tunnel of Love. Worn with the world’s most horrible handbag, something your granny would have sent to the charity shop, and matching old lady shoes with a very weird stain on one of them. Did a bird poop on it?
And now two gentlemen both dressed as a couple of Florida retirees. You know. The sort who think Ron de Santis is a really, really, good guy. First up, actor Woody Harrelson at the premiere of his new HBO TV series White House Plumbers.
All the women turn up for these premieres and photo calls dressed to the nines. Woody isn’t even dressed to the twos. Admittedly he looks comfy. That is the best that one can say and that, Readers, is a sad statement.
And next for your lack of delectation is WTF regular Lewis Hamilton at Coachella, the preposterous desert music festival in California, where posers go to pose.
Note how both of the chaps, Lewis and Woody, are opting for the trainer footwear to go with their patterned attire. They are like a walking advertisement for life under Ron DeSantis, strolling to the restaurant for the early bird supper. God help us all.
Talking of comfort here is model, presenter, whatever, Heidi Klum strolling around New York in her pyjamas.
Only the rear view is rather surprising…
WTF has questions. Like WTF? Like how does it stay up, like why is she wearing it? Answers on a postcard please…
Now we are back in Coachella where we meet newcomer to these pages, singer Romy Flores and a male friend, both looking perfectly frightful.
WTF’s first thought was this was a dress rehearsal for a desert production of The Rocky Horror Show but then it dawned on her that it wasn’t and that the pair of them were in full Gimp mode by choice.
And finally here is Madonna’s daughter Lourdes Leon at the launch of the Mugler collection for H&M. Although this is more of a case of S&M.
No wonder the poor love seems so miserable. I mean, wouldn’t you be, trussed up like a rotisserie chook? She obviously had a major waxing experience before putting on those leggings and the experience seems to have been an unhappy one as that is one hell of a bruise on her left lady area. The whole thing is a serious minge moment waiting to happen and the general impression is one of the love child of a Zebra and a pair of tits.
This week’s It’s Got To Go comes from WTF aficionado Annette who sent in this utterly revolting pair of faux leather ruched jeans, made by Schein or Scheit as WTF prefers to call them. Get ready…
Annette points out that her daughter discovered this, but fortunately did not buy it. Both of them were aghast at this arse-baring monstrosity like a pair of chaps with no trousers under them. And they are not wrong. It’s Got To Go.
OK Readers, that’s your lot for this week. Please keep sending in your suggestions for It’s Got To Go and your top comments, which WTF likes more than anything. Let us meet again next Friday. Be good .
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