Comment on Dominion v. Fox News Settlement

Have the chickens finally come home to roost for Fox News?

Image from CBS News

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA.) - Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for more than $787 million.

Prior to the settlement, the Court had already ruled that 20 Fox News broadcasts from late 2020 contained blatantly untrue assertions that Dominion rigged the 2020 presidential election.

Dominion is also seeking $1.6 billion from Newsmax and OAN (One America News), alleging that both companies overtly tried to boost their ratings and directly appeal to disgruntled MAGA fans angry by helping to “create and cultivate an alternate reality where... Dominion engaged in a colossal fraud.”

And finally, Smartmatic, an electronic voting systems maker, is suing Fox News and hosts Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell alleging that defendants invented a story that the election was stolen from Trump and decided to make Smartmatic “the villain in their story.”

The suit seeks more than $2.7 billion in compensatory and punitive damages. Smartmatic also asks for defendants to retract “false statements and implications.”

Have the chickens finally come home to roost for Fox News?

Consider that Fox News is not, and never has been, a legitimate news network.

They began as a project by right-wing propagandist Rupert Murdoch and the late Republican media strategist Roger Ailes to spread disinformation and promote GOP politicians. (Ailes, as you may remember, resigned in 2016 from Fox News amid allegations of sexual misconduct.)

The late Fox News chairman and CEO once confessed that his network, despite its name, is not actually in the news business, once stating: “We’re competing with TNT and USA and ESPN.”

In short, Ailes regarded channels that are plainly entertainment and sports as Fox News competition, not other news outlets.

Fox News provided Trump and the GOP with a television channel to distribute their “alternative facts” to entertain their loyal followers.

How do we distinguish real news from fake news, speculation, and rumor mongering that seem to proliferate?

Perhaps we should start by heeding Ailes’ advice and look to Fox News only for entertainment, if that’s your idea of entertainment, but look to PBS NewsHour, MSNBC or CNN or other reputable news outlet for actual news.

Will the settlement with Dominion and these other pending lawsuits change Fox method of doing business or will they just view the settlement as just another cost of doing business? After all, airing false claims were good for ratings, which were good for its bottom line?

Only time will tell.