Fox News settles Dominion defamation lawsuit latest: Network avoids painful trial over 2020 election lies with $787m deal

The Independent’s Sean O’Grady writes:

“The truth matters. Lies have consequences”. The lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems put it better than any of Rupert Murdoch’s mercenary army of journalists ever would; or, indeed ever be permitted attempt to do so (the sensational story doesn’t figure much on his channels or in his titles). And it is about time that someone, somewhere, decided “enough already with the fake news”.

Without wishing to come over as sanctimonious – we journalists are all of us flawed – the humiliation of Fox News at the hands of Dominion, a hitherto obscure election machinery company, is a victory for truth.

It’s not as simple as that – because no defamation case of this magnitude can be – but the world is now just a little better off, a little safer, a little more protected from the abuse of media power than it was before Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News decided to cave in to Dominion.

Dominion Voting Systems CEO John Poulos highlighted the importance of truth when speaking about the $787.5m defamation settlement with Fox News.

Mr Poulos spoke with Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday, just one day after Fox News and Dominion settled the months-long battle about false statements the media organisation aired regarding election fraud in 2020.

“We weren’t ready to settle until all of the facts that we had discovered had come to light in the public, that was something that we had committed to from the beginning,” Mr Poulos said about the settlement.

Adriana Baio has the story.

The $787.5m settlement in the Fox News defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Machines is the second largest award in US history.

Last year, a Connecticut jury ordered Alex Jones to pay $965m to the parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting for spreading bogus claims that they were crisis actors.

Following the announcement, attorneys for Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer involved in the case, said the settlement was indicative of a larger culture of “lawlessness” at the network. “While we congratulate Dominion on a truly precedent setting settlement, we cannot help but be reminded of how Fox News’s penchant for paying out notoriously large settlements to resolve lawsuits exposing its unlawful conduct – whether it’s troubling allegations of workplace discrimination and sexual harassment and misconduct, to accusations of spreading malicious lies – have unfortunately, to date, failed to bring about actual meaningful changes to the network’s abhorrent culture of lawlessness,” the lawyers told The Independent in a statement.

“Fortunately, our client, Abby Grossberg, remains committed as ever to obtaining vindication of Fox News’s violations of not just her rights but the rights of others whose voices have been silenced or who fear retribution for exposing the truth, through her two lawsuits against Fox,” the statement added.

Ms Grossberg was fired from the network in March, after claiming Fox coerced her into giving misleading testimony in the defamation action. (Fox News claims she was let go for divulging privileged information.)

Moments before opening arguments in one of the biggest defamation trials in US history were set to begin, Fox News agreed to settle a lawsuit from a voting machine company that accused the network of spreading false statements about its business in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.

Alex Woodward has the full story.

The lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News is far from the only one being pursued by the voting systems company over the 2020 election lies.

These are the other people and companies still being sued by Dominion:

In a statement, Fox News said: “We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems.”

“We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

With the settlement, Fox News has admitted to knowingly spreading false claims about the voting machine company in the afermath of the 2020 presidential election.

However, the hosts responsible for making the claims appear unlikely to have to do so on-air.

CNN’s Oliver Darcy said that the terms of the $787.5m settlement did not include any requirement for Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity to address the 2020 election lies they helped to spread.

Donald Trump has remained silent on the settlement reached between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems.

The former president is yet to comment on the news – despite the lawsuit being directly related to his election lies.

On Monday, Mr Trump had suggested Fox News should stand by his election fraud lies to weaken Dominion Voting System’s arguments in the case.

“If Fox would finally admit that there was large scale cheating & irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, which would be a good thing for them, & for America, the case against them, which should not have existed at all, would be greatly weakened,” he had claimed.

“Back up those patriots at Fox instead of throwing them under the bus – & they are right! There is sooo much proof, like mass ballot stuffing caught on government cameras, FBI colluding with Twitter & Facebook, state legislatures not used, etc.”

The $787.5m settlement in the Fox News defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Machines is the second largest award in US history.

Last year, a Connecticut jury ordered Alex Jones to pay $965m to the parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting for spreading bogus claims that they were crisis actors.