Fox News settles with Dominion for $787.5 million after hourslong trial delay

It seems Dominion’s decision to settle its case against Fox News comes with a hefty price tag but no on-air apologies. We know that Fox had agreed to pay $787.5 million dollars, approximately half of the amount sought by Dominion in the case. And we expect the terms of the settlement will not require Fox News hosts to publicly apologize to viewers for spreading lies and falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. 

We have some clues that Fox will not have to issue an apology. First, at a press conference following news of the settlement, Dominion’s lawyers affirmatively opted not to answer questions about whether there were additional terms to the settlement.

Second, at that same press conference, Justin Nelson, one of Dominion’s lawyers, said “Money is accountability and we got that today from Fox.” This seems to indicate that the payment of the money itself is the acknowledgment of the lies.

Third, Fox Corp., for its part, predictably tried its best to downplay the settlement, saying only “we acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

This settlement is reportedly more than three times larger than any previous settlement or verdict in a defamation case involving a media corporation. Dominion is hoping the price tag alone will be a message to the public that Fox lied. But, a payment is not the same as a statement, and it certainly looks like we won’t see Fox News hosts look into the camera and tell us, “I lied to you about the election.” 

It’s worth remembering that Dominion’s lawsuit is not the only one filed against Fox News for spreading lies about the 2020 election. Smartmatic, another voting technology company, has sued Fox for $2.7 billion. Smartmatic has to be looking at this settlement, and Fox’s apparent deep desire to avoid a public trial, and wondering how this bodes for its chances of extracting more than a monetary settlement. 

Admittedly, it’s a strange question.

Dominion secured a staggering sum in settling this historic case. But Dominion also cast itself as fighting on behalf of democracy against a ruthless right-wing network that tore at the fabric of that democracy — namely, the sanctity of elections, by airing false claims about them. Therefore, I had wondered whether what was preventing settlement until this point may have been that Fox was prepared to pay a hefty sum but didn’t want to, say, issue a public apology.

We may not know the full terms of the settlement, so it’s possible there are non-monetary conditions that we just don’t know about yet. But it’s difficult to truly assess this historic case until we know the full extent of the settlement. And if it is just the (huge amount of) money, without additional non-monetary action from Fox, it may be worth a conversation about how valuable this otherwise eye-popping settlement is.

Fox Corp. has issued a statement acknowledging the settlement:

“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems. We acknowledge the court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false. This settlement reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards. We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”

There's a noticeable omission from that statement, as my colleague Lisa Rubin pointed out:

In a press conference outside the courthouse, Dominion lawyer Justin Nelson announced Fox News settled with Dominion for $787.5 million. Dominion initially sought $1.6 billion.

That's a lot of Donald Trump NFTs!

It was almost a trial for the ages, until Dominion abruptly settled with Fox news. We don't yet know the terms of the settlement.

Judge Davis dismissed the jurors and praised the lawyers' "professionalism" throughout the case.

Judge Davis announces Dominion and Fox News has "resolved" its case.

Opening statements were supposed to start at 1:30 p.m. ET, but here we are more than two hours later with nothing to show for it. The attorneys for Fox and Dominion were seen huddling in the courtroom. Were they discussing settling the matter before going forward with opening statements? There was speculation that settlement talks were why the trial’s start was delayed from yesterday to today.

To be sure, there are any number of reasons that a trial could be delayed, many of them far less epic than settlement, such as a necessary party getting sick or stuck in traffic. 

We should hopefully learn soon, as the judge said they’d be concluding proceedings by by 4:30 p.m. ET each day.

The trial hasn’t even started but the judge presiding over the case has asked a special master to investigate whether Fox News violated its obligation to provide evidence to Dominion during the pretrial exchange of evidence. 

According to the court order filed this morning, the special master’s report is due May 15, when, given the pace of the trial thus far, we should be in the middle of this defamation case.

The judge already sanctioned Fox for failing to provide evidence and specifically stated that Fox has a “credibility problem.” 

If the jury agrees that Fox has a credibility problem, so much so that its hosts and guests knew they were lying when they spread falsehoods about the 2020 election, that is game over for Fox in this trial.

It seems unlikely this order is the cause of the current delay, given in part that it was filed at 11:43 a.m. ET. The trial was expected to resume at 1:30 p.m. ET.