The whole world by now is probably sick of hearing about the Dominion Voting Systems libel lawsuit against Fox News and Tuesday’s $787.5 million settlement. The whole world, that is, minus Fox News viewers, who have heard precious little about the lawsuit and even less about the settlement. The lead-up to the trial was the subject of countless news stories and analyses as the implications for journalism were weighed and multiple examples aired of how Fox presenters colluded behind the scenes to skew their coverage and advance the lie that Dominion had helped rig the 2020 presidential election.
But since the settlement didn’t require Fox News to apologize or outline publicly exactly how the network engaged in a systematic campaign of lies, those viewers will probably go on believing the nonsense they’ve been fed for the past two years.
Howard Kurtz, the network’s media reporter, announced the settlement using the vaguest possible terminology. He called it “one of the most heavily covered” defamation cases in history, neglecting to remind viewers that the network had banned him and other Fox presenters from discussing specifics of the trial on air. So viewers might have been surprised to learn of a settlement in a lawsuit they knew little about. Kurtz added to the confusion by claiming that he couldn’t independently confirm the amount of the settlement even though it was readily available to any reporter covering the trial or to millions of viewers watching other television networks.
