Fox News admits to lies about Dominion, settles case for $1.17 billion

Wilmington: Fox News has agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $US787.5 million ($1.17 billion) to avert a trial in the voting-machine company’s lawsuit that would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 US presidential election.

The stunning settlement emerged just as opening statements were supposed to begin, abruptly ending a case that had embarrassed Fox News over several months and raised the possibility that network founder Rupert Murdoch and stars such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity would have to testify publicly.

“The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson told reporters outside a Delaware courthouse after Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced the deal.

The settlement came at the eleventh hour, with a 12-person jury selected on Tuesday morning and the case poised to kick off with opening statements on Wednesday morning (AEST). Dominion had sought $US1.6 billion in damages in the lawsuit filed in 2021, with Davis presiding over the case in Wilmington.

Dominion’s CEO disclosed the settlement figure and said Fox had admitted to telling lies about his company.

Fox said in a statement: “We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. 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.”

At issue in the lawsuit was whether Fox was liable for airing the false claims that Denver-based Dominion’s ballot-counting machines were used to manipulate the 2020 US election in favour of Democrat Joe Biden over Republican then-president Donald Trump.

Dominion argued that these on-air claims caused the company “enormous and irreparable economic harm”.

Dominion Voting Systems attorney Justin Nelson, standing left, and Fox News attorney Daniel Webb, standing at right, speaking to Judge Eric Davis before finishing jury selection in Delaware Superior Court in Wilmington.Credit: AP

Davis had ordered a one-day trial postponement on Monday before another delay on Tuesday, apparently as the two sides hammered out a deal.

The deal spares Fox the peril of having some of its best-known figures called to the witness stand and subjected to potentially withering questioning, including executives such as Murdoch, the 92-year-old media mogul who serves as Fox Corp chairman, and Fox CEO Suzanne Scott as well as on-air hosts including Carlson, Hannity and Jeanine Pirro.

The decision to settle also followed a ruling by the judge last month that Fox could not invoke free speech protections under the US Constitution in its defence.

Fox News is the most-watched US cable news network, according to Nielsen. Fox Corp reported nearly $US14 billion in annual revenue last year.

Rupert Murdoch.Credit: Rob Homer

The primary question for jurors was to be whether Fox knowingly spread false information or recklessly disregarded the truth, the standard of “actual malice” that Dominion had to show to prevail in a defamation case.

In February court filings, Dominion cited a trove of internal communications in which Murdoch and other Fox figures privately acknowledged that the vote-rigging claims made about Dominion on air were false.

Dominion said Fox had amplified the untrue claims to boost its ratings and prevent its viewers from migrating to other media competitors on the right including One America News Network, which Dominion is suing separately.

During a deposition, Murdoch testified that he believed the 2020 election was fair and had not been stolen from Trump.

A protester holds a sign near representatives of Fox News outside the justice centre for the Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News in Wilmington.Credit: AP

“Fox knew the truth,” Dominion argued in court papers. “It knew the allegations against Dominion were ‘outlandish’ and ‘crazy’ and ‘ludicrous’ and ‘nuts.’ Yet it used the power and influence of its platform to promote that false story.”

In a March 31 ruling, Davis pointedly called out the news organisation for airing falsehoods while noting how the bogus election claims still persist, 2½ years after Trump lost his bid for reelection.

“The statements at issue were dramatically different than the truth,” Davis said in that ruling. “In fact, although it cannot be attributed directly to Fox’s statements, it is noteworthy that some Americans still believe the election was rigged.”

In its defence, Fox said it was obligated to report on the most newsworthy of stories — a president claiming that he had been cheated out of re-election.

“We never reported those to be true,” Fox lawyer Erin Murphy said. “All we ever did was provide viewers the true fact that these were allegations that were being made.”

Adding to the legal risks for Fox, another US voting technology company, Smartmatic, is pursuing its own defamation lawsuit, seeking $US2.7 billion in damages in a New York state court.

Dominion in 2021 sued Fox Corp and Fox News, contending that its business was ruined by the false vote-rigging claims that were aired by the influential American cable news outlet known for its roster of conservative commentators.

The trial was to have been a test of whether Fox’s coverage crossed the line between ethical journalism and the pursuit of ratings, as Dominion alleges and Fox denies. Fox had portrayed itself in the pre-trial skirmishing as a defender of press freedom.

The complaints referenced instances in which Trump allies including his former lawyers, Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell, appeared on Fox News to advance the false allegations about Dominion.

Dominion obtained internal communications and testimony from Murdoch and other Fox News executives and commentators. Murdoch internally described the election-rigging claims as “really crazy” and “damaging” but declined to wield his editorial power to stop them and conceded under oath that some Fox hosts nonetheless “endorsed” the baseless claims, Dominion told the court in a filing.

When Murdoch watched Giuliani and Powell make their claims about Dominion on November 19, he characterised them to chief executive Scott as “terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear,” according to the filing.

Under questioning from a Dominion lawyer, Murdoch testified that he thought everything about the election was on the “up-and-up” and doubted the rigging claims from the very beginning, according to Dominion’s filing.

Asked if he could have intervened to stop Giuliani from continuing to spread falsehoods on air, Murdoch responded, “I could have. But I didn’t”, the filing said.

Reuters, AP

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