Malice. Tough word. There's plenty of it in this world as human beings try to hurt each other. The M word is the exact opposite of kindness.

In legal terms, malice is described as a "reckless disregard for the truth," as well as sinister actions to bring harm. Malice is the tipping point in the 1.6 billion dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News by the Dominion voting machine company.

All news organizations are protected by the First Amendment to a great extent. The Founders did not want purveyors of information to be punished by those they exposed. But what about peddling false information? What about harming people and enterprises with "lies?"

Well, that assessment is in the eye of the beholder, which in the Fox defamation trial will be the individual jurors in Delaware. They have to decide whether Fox intentionally fostered a false presentation of the election of 2020 for commercial gain and whether the voting machine company suffered grave damage in the process.

If the jury concurs with that - malice is established, and Fox will pay big.

Now, it would be grossly irresponsible for anyone to convict Fox News without hearing cross-examined sworn testimony in court. But that's exactly what is happening, as every single corporate news agency in America has already convicted FNC and is openly rooting for the Delaware jury to do the same.

Malice? You betcha.

An example. CNN reporter Oliver Darcy wrote a hate Fox column that accused FNC of a legacy of deceit. I've dealt with Darcy in the past, and he is a malicious guy, in my opinion. He's also a leftist zealot, and that drives his animus toward FNC.

You may remember that CNN gleefully reported falsehoods for years regarding Russia and the Trump political machine. There was little balance, and the accusations of wrongdoing were non-stop. But when the Mueller federal investigation exposed the "Russian Collusion" hoax, Darcy and his network went largely silent. CNN did fire Darcy's pal Brian Stelter but old Oliver survived.

This is not "what aboutism," which, as you may know, I despise. No, if a jury finds Fox News guilty of defamation, that will stand in this precinct.

But everyone should know that the FNC trial will be covered with malice by many in the media. The verdict has already been rendered in the libel world - the actual trial is a mere formality.

And that's pretty malicious, is it not?

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