Fox News is now on trial for defamation, not for its years-long assault on American democracy and civil discourse.
Still, if Dominion Voting Systems succeeds in its $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox, it will be a victory for all Americans who care about this country, even the millions whose anxieties about demographic change in the U.S. have been milked for profit by the multinational media conglomerate.
The trial's outcome can't repair the damage that Fox News has inflicted on our society, such as the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories that have motivated white supremacist mass shootings and a failed coup. It can't heal the rupture between conservatives and liberals that company executives have turned into a chasm. But it's an opportunity to hold Rupert Murdoch and his allies accountable for some of its industrial-scale deception that fuels the hate many Americans have for one another and makes it hard to defend our common interests.
