Entertainment
Fox Lawsuit Highlights Effects Of Conspiracies On Dominion
FOX PHOENIX — Elected leaders in Arizona’s most populous county are bracing for what could happen when the county’s $2 million-a-year contract for voting equipment expires.
Maricopa County officials, which encompasses Phoenix, say they have no reservations about their current vendor, Dominion Voting Systems. The issue is that the company has become entangled in a web of conspiracy theories since the 2020 presidential election, which has eroded public trust in US elections among conservative voters, led to calls to ban voting machines in some areas, and triggered death threats against election officials across the country.
“I am concerned about my security if we re-enlist Dominion,” Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican elected in 2020, stated in court. “It went from a company that no one had heard of to one of the most demonized brands in the United States or the world.”
The Colorado-based voting machine company’s unexpected turnaround is at the core of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit it has filed against Fox News. The trial is set to begin in mid-April. On multiple occasions, Dominion says Fox defamed it by airing false claims about the company’s voting machines and software. Court documents and testimony showed that several Fox hosts and executives did not believe the claims made by former President Donald Trump and his supporters since the 2020 election, but they continued to broadcast them, in part because they were afraid of losing viewers.
Defamation lawsuit it has filed against Fox News.
As Trump and his fellow Republicans argued that he shouldn’t have lost to Democrat Joe Biden, Fox said it was reporting on newsworthy allegations. The network says that Dominion has exaggerated how much it’s worth, couldn’t have done the damage it’s accused of and has played down security worries about its machines. Fox’s lawyers also say that the court documents show that Dominion is in good financial shape.
According to Fox, the case has no merit, and the outrageous damage claim only highlights its overt attempt to censor constitutionally protected speech.
Dominion has shown proof that it lost business contracts and opportunities in the last two years. It cites misinformation as the reason officials in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee have ended contracts with it, while counties in Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, and Ohio have yet to choose to renew.
One expert estimated that Dominion had lost nearly $16 million in profits due to customers who either terminated their contracts early or decided not to renew in a report the company submitted in November as part of its lawsuit.
According to the same estimate, Dominion has already lost $72.3 million in potential contract extensions, extra equipment sales and service contracts with current customers, and new business.
Overall, the expert estimated that the company’s value had dropped by $920 million, which included the anticipated taxes the company would have to pay if it were awarded damages. The expert also estimated additional missed opportunities, which have not been officially disclosed.
Overall, the expert estimated that the company’s value had dropped by $920 million.
A Dominion spokeswoman, Stephanie Walstrom, said, “The evidence will show that before Fox started spreading and endorsing lies about Dominion voting machines, Dominion was a valuable, quickly growing business that was executing its plan to grow.”
The company’s difficulties are far from over, as conspiracy theories about the last presidential race have permeated much of the Republican Party. Trump supporters still travel the nation, meeting with community groups and holding forums to spread election conspiracies.
Some county officials, citing constituent concerns, have used the conspiracies to justify refusing to certify election results and have fed efforts to decertify or ban voting equipment.
“People aren’t acting rationally,” said Lawrence Norden, a Brennan Center for Justice election security expert who has pushed for increased voter access and funding for elected offices. “They’re canceling contracts at a high cost to their taxpayers.”
Recent actions, such as in Shasta County, California, where the board of supervisors ended its contract with Dominion early, are not included in the Dominion expert’s report. The board cited a loss of public trust in the machines used in the county to tabulate paper ballots marked by hand at a meeting in January.
Trump received 65% of the vote in Shasta County in 2020.
“Dominion has to prove to me that we have a free and fair election,” said Patrick Henry Jones, Chair of the Board of Supervisors, who led the campaign to end the contract. “Just because we’re all sitting here and elected doesn’t mean we’ve always had free and fair elections.”
The board is now pursuing a proposal fox to count ballots by hand, which experts believe needs to be more accurate and takes longer in all but the smallest jurisdictions. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a Trump supporter, has vowed to help them eliminate their voting machines.
Lindell stated in an interview that he is willing to contribute to the expenses of any lawsuits that Shasta County may face.
“They have the right to use paper ballots and a hand count,” Lindell said. “They must be brave, or we will not be able to get rid of these machines.”
Shasta County Clerk and Registrar of Voters Cathy Darling Allen fox has defended the voting equipment and blamed “disproven conspiracy theories” for undermining the county’s election system and employees. She has warned that the county is at risk of being unable to hold elections.
“Their actions have jeopardized the security of our elections and set a dangerous precedent that encourages outsiders to undermine our elections at the county level,” Darling Allen testified to Congress earlier this month.
Election security experts were worried that three companies already dominated the market.
She estimated that hand-counting all ballots in a presidential election with 50 candidates would cost at least $1.6 million and necessitate the employment of nearly 1,300 temporary workers. More than 111,000 people are enrolled to vote in the county.
Election security experts were worried that three companies already dominated the market for voting machines before the 2020 election. fox Election Systems & Software, a Dominion competitor, has not reported contract cancellations but has been forced to defend its image amid the voting machine conspiracies.
In a recent hearing, Fox’s attorney, Erin Murphy, told the Delaware Superior Court judge presiding over the defamation case that Dominion has “a real speculation problem” regarding its claims for damages and that Dominion’s lost-profits argument appears to be based on the presumption that it would have won every contract it sought if Fox’s coverage of the election fraud allegations had not occurred.
That ignores the reality that Dominion’s competitors have occasionally offered lower bids or more appealing technology, according to Murphy. Fox has used internal communications, such as one in which a Dominion worker said, “God, our products stink,” and a federal advisory that describes possible security holes found in a Dominion system.
Maricopa County, Arizona, has been at the vanguard of Dominion conspiracy theories. In 2021, the GOP-controlled Legislature used its subpoena power to seize the county’s voting equipment and hired a company run by Trump supporters to comb through it for proof that the machines had been tampered with. The company discovered none, and project manager Doug Logan admitted in a private text message revealed in an unrelated lawsuit that “the Dominion machine is quite precise.” Nonetheless, mistrust persists.
Waldeep Singh, Dominion’s senior vice president of sales, stated in a court filing that the situation in Arizona has made doing business there impossible. He blamed conspiracy theories for the company’s failure to gain business in Yavapai County, a conservative rural county north of Phoenix.
“All I can tell you is that, based on my experience and our trajectory at the time in Arizona,” Singh said, “we were trending in a very positive direction.”
“I don’t think we’ll win anything in Arizona again,” he said.
SOURCE – (AP)
Dickey Betts, a guitarist and co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band, has died, according to a family statement released to CNN on Thursday by his longtime manager.
Betts was eighty.
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Dickey Betts, Co-Founder Of The Allman Brothers Band, Dead At 80
“It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that the Betts family announces the peaceful passing of Forrest Richard ‘Dickey’ Betts,” according to the statement. “The well-known performer, songwriter, bandleader, and family patriarch passed away this morning at his home in Osprey, Florida, with his family by his side. Dickey was larger than life, and his absence will be felt around the world. During this terrible time, the family requests prayers and respect for their privacy in the coming days. More information will be provided at the proper time.”
Betts’ manager, David Spero, told Rolling Stone that the guitarist had cancer and chronic obstructive lung disease.
Betts, who was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, grew up listening to bluegrass, country music, and, subsequently, rock & roll. Betts, bass guitarist Berry Oakley, drummers Butch Trucks and Jaimoe, and brothers Gregg and Duane Allman formed the Allman Brothers Band in 1969, and are credited with helping create the sound and genre of Southern rock in the 1960s and 1970s.
Betts composed and sung the band’s biggest song, “Ramblin’ Man.” Initially, he created the song with the intention of having another artist sing it.
“I was going to send ‘Ramblin’ Man’ to Johnny Cash,” Betts stated in 2020, later adding that he “thought it was a great song for him.”
“But everyone liked the song. Even my father enjoyed the song before we recorded it or anything. And I’m thinking I’ll email this to Johnny Cash and see if he wants to perform it,” he added. “The producer (Johnny Sandlin) mentioned that we needed another song for the record and asked if I had any. I explained, ‘Well, I got one, but I was going to send it to Nashville for Cash to record.’ He said, ‘Let’s hear it. And then, ‘No! We gotta do it.'”
Betts also wrote the popular Allman Brothers songs “Blue Sky” and “Jessica.”
Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in 1971, and Oakley died in a motorcycle crash the following year. Betts and Gregg Allman became the band’s leaders, but creative disputes and substance misuse prompted the group to split up and reform several times.
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Dickey Betts, Co-Founder Of The Allman Brothers Band, Dead At 80
Cameron Crowe, then 16, followed the Allman Brothers Band on tour in 1973 for a Rolling Stone cover story that would later serve as the basis for Crowe’s Oscar-winning 2000 film “Almost Famous.” In 2017, Crowe described Billy Crudup’s key rock star character as “a tribute” to Betts.
In an email to CNN later that day, Crowe referred to Betts as “a guitarist for the ages, the musical glue that held together The Allman Brothers Band for many years.”
“Dickey’s quiet warmth, and his timeless contribution to American music was a big inspiration for our film,” said the writer-director.
Betts quit the Allman Brothers Band in a widely publicized separation in 2000. While the band continued to tour for nearly 15 years and issued one more studio album, Betts performed with his Great Southern ensemble, which included his son Duane, and released another studio album of new songs. Betts retired in 2014.
Also on Friday, the Allman Brothers Band issued an official statement, stating that Betts’ “extraordinary guitar playing alongside guitarist Duane Allman created a unique dual guitar signature sound that became the signature sound of the genre known as Southern Rock.”
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Dickey Betts, Co-Founder Of The Allman Brothers Band, Dead At 80
“He was passionate in life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or boxing,” the statement went on to say. “Dickey was all in on and excelled at anything that caught his attention.”
When asked what he enjoyed most about music, Betts told the Sarasota Herald Tribune in 2020 that it was the impact it had on his listeners.
“I like the crowds mainly, and what the music did for them,” he went on to say. “They enjoyed the music more than I did. I just love how the crowd can drift off into another universe during a concert.”
SOURCE – (CNN)
Celebrity
Taylor Swift Drops 15 New Songs On Double Album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’
NEW YORK — Could there be a Taylor Swift new album release without any added surprises?
No.
On Friday, the pop star released her 11th album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which is an amalgamation of her previous work and reflects the artist who, at the height of her powers, has spent the last few years re-recording her life’s work and touring it, filtered through synth-pop anthems, breakup ballads, provocative and matured considerations.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-movie-premiere-101223-2-f67fae288db543988e271196614c082b.jpg "Taylor Swift Drops 15 New Songs On Double Album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’")
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Taylor Swift Drops 15 New Songs On Double Album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’
But it was midnight. At 2 a.m. Eastern, she released “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” which included 15 new songs.
“I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment,” Swift wrote in an Instagram caption. “And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
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Taylor Swift Drops 15 New Songs On Double Album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’
The songs are a natural continuation of the first half of the album, with many returning to her “evermore” and “folklore” style, aided by her partner Aaron Dessner.
Swift has surprised her fans before, and she has surely done so with a surprise album release. A few months after “folklore” was released in 2020, she revealed that “evermore” will be available at midnight on the same day. Speaking of midnight, she released a “3am” edition of “Midnights” with seven new tracks in 2022, just a few hours after the original release.
Taylor Swift’s album “The Tortured Poets Department” is now available.
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Taylor Swift Drops 15 New Songs On Double Album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’
Music Writer Maria Sherman describes it as “an amalgamation of an artist who has spent the last few years re-recording her life’s work and touring its material, filtered through synth-pop anthems, breakup ballads, provocative and matured subject matter.”
Swift revealed a surprise two hours after the album’s release: 15 more tracks.
Swift’s first original album since her record-breaking Eras Tour debuted last year.
SOURCE – (AP)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is nearly ubiquitous, occupying video and audio environments. In recent years, the K-pop music industry has used deep-fake technology to create groups that resemble actual individuals. Now meet Aitana, Spain’s first AI model.
Eternity and Mave, virtual female groups developed using artificial intelligence, have blurred the barriers between entertainment and technology. Whether we like it or not, these accelerating and frightening shifts are here to stay.
AI has recently made influencers one of its goals. Aitana Lopez, a 25-year-old AI-powered influencer from Spain, is a pioneer in the field. Switching lanes to her Instagram, @fit_aitana will strike you with eerie realism, as her “virtual soul” has deliberately developed a personality that is exceptionally lifelike and resembles the presence of a real-life model.
Her Instagram account already has over 300,000 followers.
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Aitana, created by Ruben Cruz, the creator of AI modeling business The Clueless, is a an AI model.
According to Euronews, Cruz’s breakthrough idea was fueled by the agency’s struggle to form genuine business relationships with real-life influencers. “Many projects were put on hold due to problems beyond our control,” the Clueless creator stated.
The Clueless describes Aitana, who is 25 years old, as a “strong and determined woman, independent in her actions and generous in her willingness to help others”. The AI model is also described as a Scorpio with a passion for video games and a commitment to fitness. Her vibrantly crafted design highlights Aitana as a standout with a multifaceted personality.
Designers working on Aitana’s images at the agency.The Clueless Agency
The Clueless Agency describes the AI influencer with eye-catching pink hair as an outgoing persona with “complicated humour and self-centeredness.”
The AI-powered “gamer at heart and fitness lover” was born on December 11, 1998. Her Instagram photos depict a digitally produced universe that reinforces the notion that she is engaging in real-world activities.
Following her trendsetting debut, the AI agency unveiled her other virtual companion, The Clueless’ second AI model, Maia Lima.
Similar to the controversy and criticism surrounding K-pop’s experimental experimentation, the rise of AI influencers has pushed unrealistic beauty standards.
While it is possible to focus on current technological advancements, this side of the virtual story is not without concerns for the future.
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