By reaching an agreement with voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News is avoiding a painful situation that has been going on for weeks, according to US correspondent Jan Postma. “This shows that the news channel didn’t believe in winning and was afraid of losing viewers.”
$787.5 million. That’s how much Fox News is paying Dominion to avoid a defamation lawsuit. Dominion had sued Fox because it claimed it suffered reputational damage as a result of the media company’s dealings. Fox claimed that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election due to abuse of Dominion’s computers.
“This lawsuit still posed a risk to Fox News,” Postma says. “Dominion asked for double the money Fox is paying now. And what’s more, this could have led to a weeks-long embarrassing situation for Fox, in which it was shown that the channel’s bigwigs have said very different things publicly about Trump than they have done internally.” Fox took the risk that the spectators left.
Though it’s one of the largest settlements of its kind, Fox can afford the amount, according to Postma. “They’ve dug deep into their pockets, but that’s not a problem for America’s most popular news channel. Fox has $4 billion in reserves.”
‘The highest journalistic standard’
Fox’s attorneys have not spoken to the media. A statement on the company’s website said that “the judge has found that some of the claims about Dominion are false.” “That’s pretty euphemistic,” Postma says. Fox also said it always strives for the highest journalistic standards. Of course, they didn’t say that disinformation, even on that channel, allowed the assault on the Capitol”.
Dominion sees this as a victory, according to Postma. “While many people had hoped for a transparency case, Dominion sees itself as the winner. Just the fact that they were able to force Fox to spend so much.”
Source: BNR
Sharon Rock is an author and journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. She has a passion for learning about different cultures and understanding the complexities of the world. With a talent for explaining complex global issues in an accessible and engaging way, Sharon has become a respected voice in the field of world news journalism.
