A high-profile defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company by voting system company Dominion has ended with a last-minute settlement deal, allowing the conservative network to avoid a closely watched trial on the same day proceedings were due to begin.
Because of the $787.5 million settlement, the public won’t hear testimony — at least in this case — from Fox News owner and corporation president Rupert Murdoch, or any of the fiery conservative personalities filling the network’s airtime. The public also won’t see any new evidence to support Dominion’s claim that the false information Fox News spread about the company in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election amounted to “actual malice.”
Full details of the settlement have not been released publicly, although US media has reported that Fox will not be required to issue an on-air apology.
Still, the litigation and filings have been a bummer for the news network and have lifted the curtain behind the scenes of the influential company — which regularly averages the highest viewership of any cable news channel in the United States.
In a hushed statement after the agreement was reached on Tuesday, Fox said, “We recognize the court’s rulings finding that certain claims about Dominion are false.”
Adding that the settlement “reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”
Dominion attorney Justin Nelson, meanwhile, said the settlement amount — a far cry from the $1.6 billion the company initially requested — “represents and accounts.”
Here’s what we learned from the procedure:
‘Crystal Clear’ Fox broadcast false claims: Judge
It may not have been the legal standard that Dominion needed to win the case outright, but in late March, Delaware Supreme Court Justice Eric Davis ruled that it was “CRYSTAL CLEAR”—written in all caps in his decision—that Fox News was spreading false information statements about Dominion in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
In legal filings, Dominion presented 20 specific instances of Fox’s coverage between November 8, 2020 and January 26, 2021, which allegedly showed the company was knowingly promoting the lies. According to Davis’s ruling, Dominion had met the burden of proof to proceed with the lawsuit, but had not yet proven that Fox News presented the untruths with “actual malice”, that is, with the knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard for the truth.
Read all about polling stations from Dominion and Smartmatic and you’ll soon understand how widespread this Democratic election fraud is and why the 2020 presidential election was in no way free or fair. #MAGA @realDonaldTrump #AmericaFirst #Dobbs https://t.co/H38VvuvSUQ
— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) November 14, 2020
The coverage Dominion pointed to included on-air comments from Fox hosts Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, many of which falsely suggested that Dominion had ties to the Venezuelan government or that there were irregularities with the machines.
In one instance, Bartiromo said in a question to Trump attorney Sidney Powell on November 8, 2020, “Sidney, we talked about the Dominion software. I know there were irregularities in the voting. Tell me about that.”
On November 14, 2020, Dobbs tweeted Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani with a quote, with the host adding: “Read all about Dominion and Smartmatic polling stations and you will soon understand how widespread this Democratic election fraud is, and why there is no way to world, the 2020 presidential election was free or fair.”
Murdoch believed election was real and feared ‘antagonizing’ Trump
Despite the coverage, Murdoch, president of the network, said in a statement that he “thought the election was real” and that it was “bad advice to [Trump] being a sore loser,” court documents showed. He added that he personally urged top Republicans not to endorse Trump’s “conspiracy theories and baseless claims of fraud.”
Murdoch said in an exchange captured in court documents that much of what Trump said in the aftermath of the election was “******** and harmful.”
He also admitted that some Fox commentators “endorsed” the baseless claim that the election was stolen, but said the network was not doing so widely.
Dominion argued that the statements showed that the media mogul knew Trump’s fraud claims were false, but that Fox continued to provide a platform for Trump attorneys Giuliani and Powell, who led the campaign to overturn the election.
Murdoch also expressed his fear of the former president, and his considerable influence among viewers, in a post-election email, saying, “We don’t want to antagonize Trump any further.”
He later explained during a statement why:[Trump] had a very large following, and they were probably mostly Fox viewers, so it would have been silly.
Concerns about declining ratings after the election; call for ‘decisive action’
Documents unsealed in February also showed Fox News executives warned of “strong conservative backlash and viewer reactions to Fox” in the aftermath of the election, particularly in connection with the network calling for Arizona for U.S. President Joe Biden on election night.
The executive responsible for brand protection, Raj Shah, noted in reports that Fox was “under heavy fire” from its customer base in the aftermath of the election.
He urged company leaders to “take bold, clear and decisive action,” which he said was necessary to “regain the trust we’re losing with our core audience,” according to court documents.
Murdoch also suggested in a January 5, 2021 post that top hosts could go on the air to definitively declare that Biden had won the election, saying it would “go a long way in stopping the Trump myth that the elections were stolen”.
In response to the suggestion, Fox News chief Suzanne Scott wrote to a subordinate: “I’ve told Rupert that privately they’re all there – we have to be careful about using the shows and p***ing the viewers, but they know how to navigate. .”
Personal contempt for Trump and his fraud claims
Court documents also revealed pervasive skepticism about Trump’s fraud claims among Fox staffers, and an outright disdain for the former president.
Host Tucker Carlson wrote in a text message to host Laura Ingraham that Trump attorney Powell was “lying” and that he “caught her”. Ingraham replied, “Sidney is totally nuts. Nobody wants to work with her. Same with Rudy [Giuliani].”
Just six days earlier, Carlson had internally called for White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich to be fired after she publicly verified a Trump tweet highlighting the fraud claims, court documents showed.
“Please get her fired,” Carlson told host Sean Hannity in a text message. “It has to stop immediately, like tonight. It hurts the business measurably. The stock price has fallen. No joke.”
Despite continuing to support Trump on air, Carlson expressed personal disdain for colleagues.
“I hate him passionately,” he wrote in a January 4, 2021 text message to a staffer, saying he looked forward to “ignoring Trump most nights.”
What comes next?
It has remained unclear what effect the settlement will have on Fox’s business, with the New York Times reporting that a recent filing showed the Fox Corporation had $4.1 billion “in cash and equivalents” on hand late last year.
At the same time, Fox was still facing a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit brought by the voting technology company Smartmatic, which alleged that post-election lies broadcast by the company had “decimated” its business. It alleged that Fox knowingly pushed more than 100 “false statements and implications” regarding the company.
On Tuesday, a Smartmatic attorney, Erik Connolly, said the lawsuit would pick up where Dominion left off.
“Dominion’s lawsuit has exposed some of the misconduct and harm caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will uncover the rest,” Connolly said. “Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, making amends for significant damage to the company and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy.”
In February, an appeals court ruled that the case could proceed. Smartmatic was only used in Los Angeles County during the 2020 election, making its reach much more limited than Dominion, which was used in 24 states.
Dominion also has pending libel lawsuits against Giuliani, Powell and other Trump allies who have publicly made unfounded claims related to the company. They are also suing two pro-Trump stations, Newsmax and One America News Network.