Fox News to pay $787.5 million to company suing it for defamation

Europe 1 with AFP 23:09 p.m., April 18, 2023

U.S. broadcaster Fox News will pay $787.5 million to electronic voting machine company Dominion, after a last-minute deal Tuesday that spares it an embarrassing lawsuit over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election. "We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems," the conservatives' favorite channel said in a statement, shortly after the announcement of an agreement between the parties by the judge who was to preside over the trial, in a superior court of the state of Delaware.

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The network also said it "takes note of a court decision finding certain claims about Dominion to be false," while the judge had said in a March 31 order that it was "crystal clear that no statement about Dominion in the 2020 election (was) true." "Lies have consequences," assured his side the lawyer of the company Dominion, Justin Nelson, announcing the amount that Fox News has agreed to pay: $ 787.5 million. The company he defends initially claimed $1.6 billion.

This agreement saves the pearl of Ruper Murdoch's media empire from suffering "the libel trial of the century" as the New York Times called it. And to Rupert Murdoch, 92, the prospect of perhaps having to testify on the stand. Even before the debates, the procedure had given rise to an embarrassing unpacking for Fox News, with the publication of email or text messages showing that stars of the channel, and even Rupert Murdoch, did not believe, in November 2020, the scenario of a rigged election, while the accusations flourished on the air.

The trial was eagerly awaited in the United States, where it was seen as a test for the limits of free speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution, as well as for the fight against disinformation. The selection of the jury had ended Tuesday and the debates were to begin immediately.

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Bête noire of Donald Trump's inner circle

"Dominion", whose machines operated in 28 states during the presidential election won by Joe Biden, was the bête noire of Donald Trump's inner circle, who accused him all over the air and without evidence of having been used to rig the election. Many of Donald Trump's voters still believe that the election was stolen from them, and the climax of this protest was reached on January 6, 2021, when thousands of his supporters attacked the Capitol, the heart of American democracy, to block the certification of the results of the November 2020 election.

If the court case was found to be strong, the company still had to establish a deliberate intent to lie at Fox News and the jury had to decide unanimously for a conviction. Essential in the conservative camp but regularly accused of echoing conspiracy theories, Fox News played big and wanted to make the trial an emblematic case of press freedom. For the channel, it was legitimate to give the floor to the Trump camp when it contested the vote and "essential for the search for the truth" to let all parties speak.

Truncated and biased message selection

But Dominion relied on internal discussions to argue that Fox News was lying on purpose, so as not to lose its Trump-loving viewers. A "really crazy thing. And damaging," wrote the big boss, Rupert Murdoch, to the boss of Fox News boss Suzanne Scott on November 19, 2020. "We have to fire her," said one of the stars of the channel, Tucker Carlson, referring to a tweet from a journalist of the channel dismissing the accusations of fraud. "It hurts the company considerably. The share price is falling. It's not a joke," he added. Fox News accused Dominion of making a truncated and biased selection of messages.