The whole world by now is probably sick of hearing about the Dominion Voting Systems libel lawsuit against Fox News and Tuesday’s $787.5 million settlement. The whole world, that is, minus Fox News viewers, who have heard precious little about the lawsuit and even less about the settlement. The lead-up to the trial was the subject of countless news stories and analyses as the implications for journalism were weighed and multiple examples aired of how Fox presenters colluded behind the scenes to skew their coverage and advance the lie that Dominion had helped rig the 2020 presidential election.
But since the settlement didn’t require Fox News to apologize or outline publicly exactly how the network engaged in a systematic campaign of lies, those viewers will probably go on believing the nonsense they’ve been fed for the past two years.
Howard Kurtz, the network’s media reporter, announced the settlement using the vaguest possible terminology. He called it “one of the most heavily covered” defamation cases in history, neglecting to remind viewers that the network had banned him and other Fox presenters from discussing specifics of the trial on air. So viewers might have been surprised to learn of a settlement in a lawsuit they knew little about. Kurtz added to the confusion by claiming that he couldn’t independently confirm the amount of the settlement even though it was readily available to any reporter covering the trial or to millions of viewers watching other television networks.
The dollar figure, likely a record, is important because it sends a loud-and-clear message about how fearful Fox was that this case would go to trial, where all of the network’s dirtiest secrets and reckless disregard for the truth would be aired publicly. By settling for such a large amount, the network tacitly acknowledged its fear of losing the case. Dominion executives say they agreed to settle because it was better to take this amount, delivered now, than to engage in a dragged-out court case with multiple appeals that likely would have delayed a payout for another two years or more.
Nevertheless, it’s frustrating that the terms of the settlement didn’t require Fox to tell its viewers in no uncertain terms: We lied. We defamed Dominion. We apologize.
Instead, all Fox was required to say was that “We acknowledge the Court rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” Kurtz’s report also made it sound as Fox’s only error was quoting former President Donald Trump and his allies that election fraud deprived him of victory in 2020. “This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” Kurtz said, quoting a network statement.
The end result is that Fox viewers were again denied access to the truth behind Trump’s election-fraud lies, only to be lied to again on Tuesday about a “commitment” to journalistic standards that simply do not exist there.
