The case hinges on fallacious opinions that said the presidential election of 2020 was fraudulent. Are those opinions defamatory? That's a high standard for the media, which embraced the phony Russian collusion situation and ran wild with the theory that President Trump directly caused the crimes on January 6, 2021.

In both cases, most of the corporate media wrote and broadcast opinions that lacked evidence and, finally, were proved to be wrong.

Donald Trump has been badly damaged by the misreporting but would lose if he sued because he couldn't prove "actual malice," a legal standard.

The Fox News defense is similar. It puts forth that it broadcasted false opinions because that's what its audience wanted to hear. It's not about malice, FNC lawyers say; it's about free expression, even if it's not based on facts. No malice was involved.

The trial is set to begin in April, but Fox News has already lost in the court of public opinion, which stands no matter what the final verdict is. FNC did not operate in an honest way; that is clear.