Fox News Corp. and its cable networks agreed to pay $78.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems as a defamation suit to end the trials. This is to avoid exposing the lies promoted by Fox News during the 2020 presidential election. Rupert Murdoch is the founder of this network and he agreed to pay this huge amount to Dominion.
Though the payout is large, which is almost one-quarter of last year’s revenue of $2.96B of Fox News Media, they still agreed to pay them. However, the network again faces a second lawsuit which is similar to this from another election technology company, Smartmatic.
The settlement helps both Fox Corp. and Dominion to come forward to claim victory by putting the case behind them. Both companies are big enough and the case will make them face risks. Thus, the settlement may end this problem, and help them to continue their business.
Biggest Financial Settlements In A Defamation Case:
When you consider the settlement, it is almost $800M. It is one of the biggest settlements that the country sees in the defamation case. Fox Corp. took this decision to resolve the dispute with Dominion and to help the country to move forward from this issue. This is the only comment from the Fox layers and representatives during the trial. They didn’t pass any other comments about the settlement.
Fox News reported the news that the Dominion’s machines changed the original result of the 2020 presidential election. This false claim affected the reputation of Dominion Voting Systems. It even affected the employees and customers of the Dominion. As a result, the Voting Company came forward to file a case against the false claims of Fox News.
Long Week Trial At The Court
After passing many trials in the court, the final trial ended the case by providing a settlement to Dominion from Fox News. During the last trial, the 12-member jury was present in the Delaware Superior Court. It is a long week trial where one could see top Fox TV hosts and the Fox network boss, Rupert Murdoch.
Dominion CEO John Poulos informed reporters after coming out of the court that “Fox accepted their lies”. He even said that the lawsuit settlement was “historic.” Since, the Dominion Company suffered a lot from such a false claim, nothing can make up for that issue. According to John, “Providing truthful reports in the media about the elections is crucial to our democracy.”
Finally, the superior court judge, Eric Davis called 12 alternate jurors and the jury to the courtroom to end this case. He announced that the court doesn’t need any evidence to review them, as the parties solved them through a settlement. As a result, Fox News agreed to pay the Defamation lawsuit of $78.5 million to Dominion to end this case amicably.
