Fox News to pay nearly $780 million in defamation lawsuit

I amUS channel Fox News has agreed to pay $787.5 million to an electronic voting machine company it accused of defamation during the 2020 presidential election, the latter’s attorney announced on Tuesday.

“Lies have consequences,” Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said at a press conference outside the courthouse in Wilmington, Delaware. The negotiated deal spares the conservatives’ favorite channel from an embarrassing lawsuit.

The conservative Fox News Channel said Tuesday it was “satisfied” that a deal had been reached that avoided an embarrassing investigation into a financial transaction.

“We are pleased to have reached a resolution to our dispute with Dominion Polling Systems,” the channel said in a statement. Fox News added that it “acknowledges the court’s ruling that found certain claims related to Dominion to be false.”

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Dominion Voting Systems, which operated in 28 states in the November 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden, accused Fox News of presenting it as a tool for ballot fraud in its complaint. Members of Donald Trump’s bodyguards on the set of America’s most-watched cable channel.

The deal spares the pearl of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire from undergoing “the defamation trial of the century,” as the New York Times described it. Rupert Murdoch, 92, has a chance to testify on the stand.

Even before the proceedings, the process led to an embarrassing unpacking for Fox News, with the chain’s stars and even Rupert Murdoch releasing emails or text messages in November 2020 that showed they were not convinced by the situation. A rigged election, while accusations grew in the air.

The trial was eagerly anticipated in the United States, where it was seen as a test of the limits of freedom of expression, guaranteed by the Constitution’s First Amendment and the fight against misinformation.