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Fox News says little after $787.5M settlement with vote-counting firm

Conservative cable channel owned by Rupert Murdoch Dominion accused of knowingly allowing defamatory claims that Denver-based Dominion's ballot-counting machines were used to manipulate the 2020 election in favour of Democrat Joe Biden.

AFP

The settlement, if formally accepted by the court, will end a case that has proven a major embarrassment for the right-wing news channel.

Fox News's $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over its coverage of false vote-rigging claims in the 2020 US election made headlines, except on the cable channel itself, whose mention of it was somewhat muted.

Hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, who had been expected to testify in the Dominion trial, did not reference the settlement, the largest struck by an American media company, during their primetime broadcasts on Tuesday night.

Dominion had alleged that statements made on Carlson's show after the 2020 election were defamatory and that messages between Carlson and his team were proof he and his team knew claims that Denver-based Dominion's ballot-counting machines were used to manipulate the election in favour of Democrat Joe Biden were false.

Fox News is owned by Fox Corp and is the most-watched US cable news network.

Fox anchor Neil Cavuto broke into his headline news show "Your World" about 4:30 p.m. ET to report the settlement and read a statement by Fox in which it said it was pleased to have reached an agreement to avert a trial and acknowledged the judge's ruling that the claims about Dominion were false.

Howard Kurtz, the host of Fox News' MediaBuzz show, appeared on Cavuto's show and during "Special Report with Bret Baier." On "Special Report" Kurtz read the Fox statement, but did not include the dollar figure of the settlement.

In response to a Reuters request for comment about Fox's coverage of the settlement, a spokesperson shared the company's statement about the Dominion settlement that aired on Cavuto and Baier's shows.

Dominion had asked for $1.6 billion in arguing that Fox had damaged its reputation by helping peddle phony conspiracy theories about its equipment switching votes from former President Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Fox said the amount greatly overstated the value of the Colorado-based company.

The resolution announced in Delaware Superior Court follows a recent summary judgment ruling in which a judge allowed the case to go to trial while emphasising it was “CRYSTAL clear” that the allegations about Dominion aired on Fox by Trump allies were true lies.

The settlement, if formally accepted by the judge, will end a case that has proven a major embarrassment for Fox News.

If the case had gone to trial, it also would have presented one of the sternest tests to a libel standard that has protected media organisations for more than half a century.