Fox agreed on Tuesday to pay 787.5 million dollars (about 717 million euros at current exchange rates) in an agreement with Dominion Voting Systems to avoid a defamation trial at the last minute in which the voting machine company accused the television network of spreading falsehoods about alleged fraud in the 2020 US elections.
The amount is slightly less than half of the compensation that Dominion sought with the lawsuit it filed in March 2021 against the conservative channel for its false allegations, in support of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), that the company had manipulated the presidential elections in which Democrat Joe Biden prevailed.
“Truth matters,” Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said in disclosing the settlement amount. “Lies have consequences,” he insisted in statements to journalists.
The unexpected agreement, of which the details are unknown for now, was initially announced by the judge of the Delaware state court in charge of the case, who today had selected the jury and was preparing to hear the initial arguments of the two parties. .
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement on our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems,” Fox News confirmed in a statement, in which he assured that the agreement reflects his “commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”
“We hope that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably will allow the country to move on from these issues,” the network said.
After the November 2020 elections, Trump, then president and Republican candidate, repeatedly reiterated his accusation, rejected in various courts for lack of evidence, of electoral fraud after Biden’s victory.
Many of his advisers, including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, defended the ruler’s claims that he had been the target of electoral fraud in which, they claimed, Dominion was involved.
Fox News, the most-watched news channel in the US, gave these fraud allegations extensive coverage, and several of its star anchors gave them credibility with viewers.
The trial that was to start today had aroused enormous expectations in the United States, where it is very rare for defamation lawsuits against the media to be heard in court, since most of them settle out of court.
In general, the plaintiffs have this type of case very uphill, since the US Constitution and its First Amendment give broad protections to the press against possible errors and force them to demonstrate that the media acted intentionally and with malice.
To do this, Dominion’s main asset was numerous internal messages from Fox journalists and executives in which they made it clear that they did not believe the accusations of voter fraud that their own company was feeding to viewers.
Those communications, which came to light as part of the preparation of this process, included words from Tucker Carlson, one of the best-known faces on Fox News, who, while on his show, gave space to these denunciations and assured that at least some were credible, in parallel text messages he referred to them as “absurd” and harshly criticized their promoters.
Presenters and officials of the network were expected to testify at the trial, including media mogul Rupert Murdoch, owner of the media empire of which Fox is a part.
After resolving this case, the channel is facing yet another lawsuit, in this case before a New York court, filed by the election systems company Smartmatic, which is demanding 2.7 billion dollars for having also involved it in this alleged electoral fraud. without providing evidence.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
