Fox News Pays $787.5 Million To Settle Dominion Lawsuit
The right-wing conspiracy theory-fueled network had been sued for $1.6 billion, and today they agreed to pay just half of that, $787,500,000, in order to settle the suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over Fox’s lies about the 2020 election. While $787 million is a lot of money, some are saying that this is essentially a win for Fox, since now they’ll avoid weeks of humiliating press during a trial where their lunatic “news” anchors would’ve had to take the witness stand, and even more of Fox’s lies would’ve presumably come out in court. Still, others are saying that this doesn’t bode well for Fox given that they’re facing multiple other defamation lawsuits, including one for $2.7 billion from another voting software company, Smartmatic, that Fox lied about during the 2020 election. Will Fox have to settle that one, too, for maybe another billion? Via NBC:
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems reached a $787.5 million settlement agreement Tuesday afternoon, the parties announced, narrowly heading off a trial shortly after the jury was sworn in.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies,” John Poulos, Dominion CEO, said at a news conference after the trial ended.
Interpret the payout however you want, but Fox unfortunately didn’t have to actually admit to telling any lies. Their brain dead viewers probably didn’t even know that the lawsuit was happening. The statement from Fox is, of course, a complete joke:
Fox News, in a statement, said it acknowledged “the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”
“This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” the network said. “We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”
[NBC]
Commentary and analysis from CNN right after the settlement was announced:
ADDED:
Read this article on The Intercept (you might have to type in an email address to read it, but it’s not behind a paywall), explaining why Dominion accepting the settlement shouldn’t come as a surprise. Excerpt:
Dominion does not exist to serve the public interest or liberal magazines. It is a for-profit company owned by Staple Street Capital, a small private equity firm. […] The high hopes that were riding on the trial reflected the exasperated state of the longtime — and so far unsuccessful — effort to counteract the deceptive and racist programming that has been Fox’s hallmark since its founding in 1996 by Rupert Murdoch… […] These hopes, while widely held among Fox’s detractors, constitute the kind of magical thinking that circled around earlier efforts to undo the lies and violence of the Trump era. Just as the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller failed to deliver the knockout blow that was hoped for by its supporters, the now-settled lawsuit filed by Dominion is unlikely to alter the nature of Fox News, as the network has escaped the legal, moral, and financial punishment of a judicial verdict. We probably shouldn’t be surprised by this outcome: One terrible limb of American capitalism was always unlikely to save us from another terrible limb.
