Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. have struck a deal averting a trial in the blockbuster defamation suit filed by the election tech company Dominion Voting Systems over spurious claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Judge Eric Davis of the Delaware Superior Court announced the settlement from the bench on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the trial’s scheduled start.
The parties settled for $787,500,000 — about half of Dominion’s original $1.6 billion ask.
The amount “represents vindication and accountability,” said Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson.
“Lies have consequences.”
[inline_related_posts title=”Also Read: ” title_align=”left” style=”list” number=”2″ align=”none” ids=”” by=”categories” orderby=”rand” order=”DESC” hide_thumb=”no” thumb_right=”no” views=”no” date=”yes” grid_columns=”2″ post_type=”” tax=””]
Dominion CEO John Poulos told reporters, “Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and the customers that we serve. Nothing can ever make up for that. Throughout this process, we have sought accountability,” he said. “Truthful reporting in the media is essential to our democracy.”
Fox News released a statement shortly after a settlement was announced.
“We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false,” the statement said. “This settlement reflects FOX’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. 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.”
“As much evidence as we’ve seen, there still is plenty more that hasn’t been made public. In a trial, the documents and statements that have been redacted, which are likely to constitute some of the most damning evidence against Fox, would have been revealed,” said Tom Wienner, a retired Michigan corporate litigator who has been following the case closely at NPR’s request.
“Dominion started this case because Fox’s defamatory statements had severely damaged its reputation,” Wienner added. “By largely trying its case in the court of public opinion, Dominion has gone a long way toward restoring its good name. In the process, of course, Fox’s own reputation has been seriously undermined.”
A settlement was always on the table
Past the ill will, past the statements that were clearly wrong in real time, past the inflammatory arguments and the soaring declarations of constitutional principle, a settlement always loomed as the logical resolution of the legal clash.
Dominion Voting Systems alleged that Fox stars, executives, journalists and guests defamed the election tech company for segments in which wild and spurious conspiracies held it had switched votes for then-President Donald Trump to Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Dominion’s legal team pursued a “to the pain” strategy, intending to inflict maximum discomfort for Fox and its proprietors in order to secure as big a payout and as public an apology from Fox News as possible. For Fox and its controlling owners, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, it was worth the cost to pay for the spectacle to go away.
For Fox, what evidence dribbled out in court hearings and court documents piled embarrassment upon embarrassment upon disgrace:
Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott warned her colleagues against running fact-checking segments by the network’s own reporters debunking lies about election fraud, even as it gave such bogus claims acres of prime real estate.
Primetime stars Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity privately trashed the people who lied about Dominion on their network’s airwaves and yet also trashed the reporters who sought to hold them accountable for those lies.
Fox founder Rupert Murdoch — who, under oath, called himself a newsman at heart — advocated going slow in confronting Fox’s pro-Trump viewers with unwelcome news in order to protect the franchise.
Hannity didn’t believe “for one second” the lies being peddled by Trump and on Fox itself, even though, as Murdoch put it, the star endorsed them “a bit.”
Host Maria Bartiromo put on an attorney spinning pro-Trump conspiracy theories and insinuating, without evidence, fraud by Dominion on the basis of a memo whose author, a Minnesota artist, called her own allegations “pretty wackadoodle.”
Judge Davis had signaled his deep skepticism over Fox’s defense.
Before the jury trial phase of the case had even commenced, Davis ruled in Dominion’s favor on key points. Fox had argued Dominion’s lawsuit violated free speech provisions in the First Amendment by seeking to hold the network accountable for what it accurately reported that newsworthy figures, including a sitting president, were saying.
Fox still faces a second, similar defamation lawsuit from another election technology firm, Smartmatic, which is seeking $2.7bn.
Dominion still has litigation pending against two conservative news networks, OAN and Newsmax.
The company has also sued Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and Mike Lindell.