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(Trends Wide) — The Big Lie came at a high price.
The staggering $787.5 million last-minute settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems, which came after the jury sat down on the verge of hearing opening statements on Tuesday, served as a stark reminder that Telling lies has consequences.
The country suffered the consequences of Donald Trump’s electoral lies on January 6, 2021. And Rupert Murdoch suffered the consequences of those same lies on April 18, 2023.
But while it is the largest publicly known defamation settlement by a US news outlet, the high price tag will not be enough to change Fox News at its core. The right-wing news channel still casts doubt on the 2020 election to this day. And sources tell me that the deal he struck with Dominion won’t require his rogue personalities to acknowledge reality and issue retractions on the air.
Instead, Fox News will only have to “acknowledge” its lies in an evasively edited statement it issued when its lawyers literally fled the courtroom as reporters ran down the street after them.
“We acknowledge the Court’s rulings that found certain assertions about Dominion to be false,” the network said, before having the nerve to add that the settlement “reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”
What the Dominion deal leaves for Fox
Of course, Dominion’s lawsuit revealed precisely the opposite. In some ways, it’s appropriate that the statement released by Fox News as a result of his dishonest conduct was dishonest itself.
The case exposed Fox News as a rogue organization like never before. It’s hard for any impartial observer to see the channel as anything more than a propaganda profit machine devoid of the most basic ethics. The case shattered what little remained of the talk channel’s credibility.
Some observers expected this case to go to trial, bringing with it liabilities and further exposing the network. It definitely would have been an excruciating several weeks for Fox News. The network’s highest-ranking executives and biggest stars, such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, would have been forced to confront how lies they never believed were being promoted on air on the network to its millions of loyal viewers.
Aside from the embarrassment that Fox News would have suffered, the settlement also spared the company and its executives from being subject to the laws of reality during the trial. Normally, Fox News navigates through the controversy by misrepresenting the critics it faces and attacking “the media.” That time-tested playbook wouldn’t have worked in court, where the judge would have forced the network’s lawyers to present an argument based on facts to the jury. In other words, the chain would have been forced to enter the true Zone of No Return. And that has always been a no-go area for the channel when faced with a crisis.
But it’s important to note that this was just the first of Fox News’ legal troubles stemming from its deceptive conduct in the wake of the 2020 election. Another voting technology company, Smartmatic, is still suing Fox News, demanding US$ 2,700 million for the “disinformation campaign” that he launched against his company.
“The Dominion litigation exposed some of the misconduct and harm caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign,” the company’s lead attorney, Erik Connolly, said in a statement after the Fox-Dominon deal was announced.
“Smartmatic will expose the rest.”
