Fox News’s eye-watering legal defamation settlement of $787.5million with Dominion Voting Systems over the promotion of misinformation about the 2020 US election is a devastating indictment of the company. It will not, however, be apologising for promulgating what the Wilmington court found in pretrial hearings – that “none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true”. It grudgingly conceded only that “we acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” Fox insists, unrepentant: “This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”
Yet truth was never the issue. The claims that Dominion was involved in rigging the election, repeated over 20 times by numerous Fox programmes, were patently false. Fox’s only defence was that, in the public interest, they were “reporting”claims made by the Donald Trump campaign that this was the case.
The US supreme court has interpreted the First Amendment (free speech) widely, giving journalists facing defamation suits considerable immunity when they make a mistake. But intentional lies are not protected.
At issue in the case was whether Dominion could cross a higher evidential bar to demonstrate “actual malice” in airing the claims, specifically whether, knowing them to be false, the company’s executives sought to air them unchallenged, or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Owner Rupert Murdoch said during his deposition that some Fox hosts had “endorsed” Trump’s lies.
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No matter how technically difficult Dominion’s case, Fox decided to spare Murdoch, along with top Fox “talent”, from the embarrassment of having to testify.
Although the cash-rich Fox News, with a reported $4 billion-plus in the bank, can well afford the settlement, egregious mismanagement may well face some justified criticism– and some shareholders are now mulling legal action against the company and its directors.