Fox News to pay Dominion $787.5 million over 'US election rigging': What was the case and why did the news outlet pay?

What was anticipated to be the biggest trial in the United States was over even before it started. Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, on Tuesday agreed to pay $787.5 million (Rs 6,466 crore) to resolve a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems.

Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company based in Colorado, had filed a $1.6 billion (Rs 13,138 crore) defamation case against the right-wing network over the broadcaster’s alleged role in spreading the lie of a stolen 2020 presidential election — when Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden.

After the settlement was announced in a full courtroom in Wilmington, where the case was being heard, Justin Nelson, a lawyer for Dominion, said: “The truth matters. Lies have consequences.”

But what exactly was the case all about? Who was involved in the matter? What are the implications of the case? Has the case affected Fox News’ credibility?

Why Dominion sued Fox

At the heart of the matter is the 2020 US presidential elections.

When Donald Trump lost the election, he claimed it was stolen from him. One of the lies peddled by him and his allies was that thousands of votes for Trump were switched to Joe Biden, particularly in Antrim County, Michigan. They further stated that voting machines by Dominion ran a secret algorithm that switched votes from one candidate to another. Moreover, they claimed that Dominion was founded in Venezuela in a bid to help that country’s leftist leader, Hugo Chávez, fix elections.

Dominion says Fox News aired these claims. In its lawsuit, it wrote, “Fox engaged in this knowing and reckless propagation of these enormous falsehoods in order to profit off these lies. Fox wanted to continue to protect its broadcast ratings, catering to an audience deeply loyal to President Trump.”

Several of Trump’s supporters and allies appeared on various Fox News shows and peddled these lies. For instance, Sidney Powell, then a lawyer working with Trump’s campaign, accused Dominion of “flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist” and a “huge criminal conspiracy that should be investigated by military intelligence” on Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro’s shows. Another example was former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani claiming on Lou Dobbs’s show that Dominion and Smartmatic were companies “formed in order to fix elections” by associates of the Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez.

Court documents have, however, revealed that the network’s biggest personalities did not believe these accusations. “Sidney Powell is lying,” prime-time star Tucker Carlson had written to his producer. Anchor Bret Baier had told an executive: “There is NO evidence of fraud.”

Yet in public, Dominion argued that Fox News reiterated and amplified these conspiracies. Famous US American presenter Sean Hannity said in a deposition that he didn’t believe the fraud claims “for one second” but wanted to give accusers the chance to produce evidence.

Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch when asked under oath agreed that the 2020 election was free and fair. “The election was not stolen,” he said.

The settlement

On Tuesday, just when it seemed that the trial in the Dominion vs Fox case would begin, the case had another twist and it was revealed amid gasps that the two parties were settling.

It is, in fact, the largest publicly known defamation settlement in US history involving a media company. Notably, in 2017, ABC News paid $177 million after its years-long legal dispute with South Dakota-based meat processor Beef Products Inc. over its textured meat product that the network referred to as “pink slime.”

Justin Nelson, the lead counsel for Dominion later told CNN that there were two goals in its defamation case against Fox News — accountability and “trying to make Dominion whole”. Both were accomplished in this settlement, he said Tuesday.

Also read: Why Fox News imposed ‘soft ban’ on former US president Donald Trump

The payment by Fox News to Dominion and the network’s statement acknowledging that its coverage of the 2020 election was false was “a strong message of accountability” and an important victory for the employees of his client’s company.

“This is really the first time that anyone has paid a price for telling the lies of the 2020 election and we’re very proud about that,” he said.

What this means

The settlement with Dominion is undoubtedly a rebuke of Fox News and its journalism. While the media outlet, as per the settlement, doesn’t have to acknowledge on-air that it told election lies, the entire matter does hurt Fox beyond just the money.

As former assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York Elie Honig told CNN, “The settlement is an unequivocal rebuke of the right-wing news network and its journalism.”

The Associated Press wrote that this case shows there is a real financial risk for conservative media that traffic in conspiracy theories. However, it is left to be seen how much of a deterrent will it be in the future.

Some experts believe that despite the huge pay-out, it was beneficial for the news outlet. Syracuse University professor and First Amendment expert Roy Gutterman told BBC: “Looking down the line at a six-week trial, this was going to be gruelling for everyone involved and likely embarrassing for Fox.

“But a verdict against Fox could have been even costlier, and had serious implications on subsequent rulings on the actual malice standard and the First Amendment itself.”

Civil litigation attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel in the same BBC report opined that the settlement “speaks to the massive threat Fox saw from this litigation”. “The reputational harm of having executives, including chairman Rupert Murdoch, and hosts take the stand seems to have moved the parties towards a resolution,” Tuegel added.

But what about Fox’s viewership? Will the audience’s confidence in the outlet be affected? According to a Vox report, it seems unlikely. It is important to note here that Fox almost completely ignored the matter in its coverage. A New York Times analysis revealed that the settlement was covered only three times by Fox News in about four hours after the settlement became public, amounting to about six minutes of coverage. But remained the top story on CNN, MSNBC and CBS News.

But the settlement does come as a silver lining. CNN commentator David Axelrod tweeted, “This Fox settlement is one more crushing blow to the conspiracy mongers who tried to steal an election on the basis of false charges and intimidation.”

With inputs from agencies

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