Fox News on Tuesday agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million as part of a settlement that also included a statement from Fox saying it acknowledges it made false statements about Dominion in the days and weeks after the 2020 election.
Dominion alleged that Fox News hosts knowingly told lies about the company that damaged its reputation. The settlement came just before a jury trial was set to begin and less than a month after a judge ruled that the evidence “demonstrates that it’s CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.”
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems,” Fox’s statement said. “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.”
Dominion CEO John Poulos held a news conference outside the courtroom.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and the customers we serve,” Poulos said. “Nothing can make up for that.”
Fox News’ Howard Kurtz on Tuesday recounted arguments from both sides, noting that Dominion had “sued Fox charging that the network damaged its reputation by reporting on false claims that its machines were somehow stealing votes from Donald Trump and flipping them to Joe Biden.” Dominion had acquired “internal messages that key figures at Fox did not believe those conspiracy theories,” Kurtz said. Fox argued that the “First Amendment protects the network's airing of false claims made by former President Trump,” Kurtz said.
Meanwhile, former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly criticized his former employer in a Tuesday statement, calling Fox “foolish.”
“Going forward, Fox News faces a similar lawsuit from the Smartmatic Company and perhaps thousands of lawsuits from Fox shareholders. What a disaster,” O’Reilly wrote. “This is what happens when money becomes more important than honest information. Since I left FNC, the template changed from ‘Fair and Balanced’ to ‘tell the audience what it wants to hear.’”
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Spencer Platt / Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
