Oregon’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum is investigating Fox Corp.’s board of directors for “breach of fiduciary duty” after Fox News repeatedly broadcast election lies in the wake of the 2020 election. That resulted in a historic $787 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Fox’s handling of the defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which settled for $787.5 million, left many unanswered questions.
The mystery surrounding Tucker Carlson’s ouster from the airwaves at Fox News — and his future plans in media — are coming into sharper focus. On April 26, Carlson spoke by phone with one of Fox Corp.’s eight board members, who told the host that his recent benching was a condition of Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the conversation. The unnamed board member told Carlson that the condition does not appear in any of the settlement’s documents, and instead was a verbal agreement. If Fox didn’t comply, the settlement was off, Carlson was told. Dominion had plenty of leverage given that the $787.5 million deal to settle Dominion’s defamation suit against the network wouldn’t officially close until late May.
The discovery of the text message contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to Tucker Carlson’s firing.
The New York Times and a consortium of media organizations are asking a judge to rule whether Fox News improperly redacted portions of texts and email exchanges that were introduced as evidence in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the network. Dominion and Fox settled the case last month for $787.5 million, in what is believed to be the largest out-of-court payout in a defamation case. But left unaddressed was a legal challenge filed by The Times in January that sought to unseal some of what Fox and Dominion had marked as confidential in their legal filings.
Exclusives
Dominion Suit’s Revelations Damage The Entire Fox Brand
It’s not just Fox News that has been battered by the self-inflicted injuries exposed in its $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. By putting pandering before honest journalism, it has sullied the Fox brand and harmed other journalists far removed from its demagoguery and slanted reporting.
Those who argue that the news media should pay a steeper price for mistakes are pushing to have a landmark Supreme Court ruling overturned.
A last-second settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems this week is reverberating throughout the political and media landscape. Experts and observers have said the deal, which was struck in dramatic fashion just moments before opening arguments in the trial over Dominion’s lawsuit was set to begin, could have major implications for the future of Fox specifically and defamation settlements paid by American media companies more generally.
Why Fox News Had To Settle The Dominion Suit
The $787.5 million payout reflects the fact that Dominion had put together a strong case that Fox had acted with “actual malice,” a high bar under defamation law that has historically been difficult for plaintiffs suing media outlets to satisfy. Dominion’s considerable success in this case indicates that Fox acutely understood that there was a high risk that the jury would side with Dominion on this crucial legal point. The settlement also spares the network from weeks of embarrassing testimony that would have put the widespread internal dysfunction at Fox News on full public display.
The stunning settlement emerged just as opening statements were supposed to begin, abruptly ending a case that had embarrassed Fox News over several months and raised the possibility that network founder Rupert Murdoch and stars such as Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity would have to testify publicly. Pictured: Attorneys representing Dominion Voting Systems speak at a news conference outside New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington, Del., after the defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News was settled just as the jury trial was set to begin, Tuesday, April 18. (Matt Rourke/AP)
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. “The truth matters. Lies have consequences,” said Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson in a news conference outside the courthouse after the announcement.
Fox News has settled Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the Rupert Murdoch-owned organization, averting a lengthy, expensive and certain to be embarrassing trial. “The parties have resolved their case,” Delaware Superior Court judge, Eric M. Davis just told the court, offering no details. The settlement was just announced in Delaware court, right after Wall Street ceased trading for the day.
The scheduled trial start comes after a one-day delay granted by the judge overseeing the case, a reprieve that gave the sides time to see if they could work out a settlement. Jury selection and opening statements had been scheduled for Monday in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit. The Denver-based company aims to hold Fox accountable for airing false allegations of election fraud that continue to roil U.S. politics.
Without citing a reason, the Delaware judge overseeing a voting machine company’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News announced late Sunday that he was delaying the start of the trial until Tuesday. The trial, which has drawn international interest, had been scheduled to start Monday morning with jury selection and opening statements.
Big questions loom in the $1.6 billion trial centered on false election fraud claims Fox aired about a voting technology company.
