Fox News Dominion case: Rupert Murdoch son drops lawsuit against news site as Smartmatic eyes trial

Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and other big names have all avoided being called to testify over 2020 election lies

'Lies have consequences': Dominion announces settlement with Fox

Rupert Murdoch's son has suddenly dropped his lawsuit against Australian news site Crikey days after Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems a landmark settlement.

Lachlan Murdoch sued Crikey for defamation last August over a column titled: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.”

The suit was dropped on Friday, citing Fox News $787m settlement with Dominion over lies about the 2020 presidential election.

“Crikey has tried to introduce thousands of pages of documents from a defamation case in another jurisdiction, which has now settled,” the statement from Lachlan Murdoch’s legal team said.

“Mr Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favor, however he does not wish to further enable Crikey’s use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits.”

Media pundits are now speculating over the possible fallout from the defamation settlement, with Puck founder Dylan Byers sparking a Twitter frenzy with a column suggesting that Rupert Murdoch could even axe some of his hosts in response to the case.

The Independent has requested comment from Fox News addressing the speculation but there was no immediate change in the network’s programming schedule as of Thursday.

On Tuesday, Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation lawsuit moments before opening arguments were about to get under way at trial.

Dominion sued Fox News for defamation, alleging that the network gave a platform to and failed to challenge conspiracy theorists that suggested Dominion was engaged in voter fraud during the 2020 election.

Those conspiracies reportedly damaged Dominion’s business and resulted in employees receiving threats from angry Fox News viewers.

In a last-minute deal, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5m to put the issue to bed.

Fox News has other legal troubles brewing with Smartmatic revealing what it will take for it to also settle its case against the network.

The voting technology company’s lawyer said on Thursday it won’t accept any settlement smaller than the same $787m payout and will demand a “full retraction” and “apology” from the network.

Key points

• Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial
• Fox News and Dominion settle defamation case
• Dominion CEO: An ‘historic settlement'
• ‘We’re not done yet’
• Fox News $787m payment in Dominion case is largest media settlement in US history

[19 April 2023 23:30 · Bevan Hurley]

Don’t be disappointed by the Fox News vs Dominion outcome – this is just the start

Noah Berlatsky writes for The Independent:

To the general disappointment of progressive observers, Fox settled its lawsuit with Dominion voting systems just before the trial’s opening arguments were slated to begin.

I, along with plenty of others, had been hoping for a full trial. We wanted to see Fox anchors like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity testify in open court under oath that they had lied to their viewers about the election, insisting that the vote was rigged against Donald Trump when they knew it was not.

Fox was desperate to avoid that, and with a $787.5 million settlement – the biggest libel payout in American history – they did.

A long trial underlining the perfidy and recklessness of right-wing media would have been a healthy outcome for democracy, and could have even undermined Fox’s reputation with some of its fanbase.

But it’s important to acknowledge that the lawsuit does provide some accountability, and, just as important, it makes future coup attempts or assaults on democracy more difficult. We know from discovery that Fox carefully weighed incentives and financial consequences before pushing election lies. This payout changes those incentives for the future. That’s a good thing.

[20 April 2023 00:00 · Bevan Hurley]

How the almost-trial of Dominion v Fox exploded into a Succession-worthy finale

Mountains of evidence boxes were wheeled into a seventh-floor courtroom on Tuesday morning, moments before lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems planned to eviscerate Fox News and its Fox Corporation leadership for the volley of false claims about the company in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

Later that morning, jurors were sworn in. They ordered lunch. Hours later, it was over. And Fox News admitted that statements on its airwaves about Dominion were false, agreeing to pay the voting machine company more than $787m in a settlement that averted one of the biggest-ever defamation trials in American history.

Alex Woodward on the made-for-TV courtroom drama that would never be televised.

[20 April 2023 00:30 · Bevan Hurley]

Everyone who is being sued by Dominion over election lies

Dominion Voting Systems agreed to settle its defamation lawsuit with Fox News for $787.5m on Tuesday — but its legal battles are far from over.

While the Fox News case attracted most of the headlines, Dominion filed a swathe of defamation suits against right-wing networks, lawyers and media personalities in the months after the 2020 election.

Here’s everyone who is being sued by Dominion.

[20 April 2023 01:00 · Bevan Hurley]

The veteran mediator who negotiated the Fox-Dominion settlement

CNN has a new behind-the-scenes account of how the historic $787.5m settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems came about.

Litigator Jerry Roscoe told the network he took an urgent call while on a European river cruise celebrating his 70th birthday on Sunday asking if he would mediate a deal between the two parties.

The lead attorneys had been “really far apart” on a settlement figure, Mr Roscoe said.

But after an intensive 24-hour period of “shuttle diplomacy” involving phone calls and Zoom meetings, Mr Roscoe had negotiated the largest known defamation payout against a media organisation in US history.

According to a business profile, Mr Roscoe has over 30 years experience resolving complex commercial, healthcare, employment, and environmental disputes.

Dominion Voting Systems attorneys Davida Brook, left, Justin Nelson, centre, and Stephen Shackelford exit the Delaware Superior Court after Tuesday’s settlement. (Associated Press)

[20 April 2023 01:30 · Bevan Hurley]

Trump remains silent on Fox’s Dominion lawsuit settlement

Former president Donald Trump’s social media output in the hours since Fox News reached a $787m settlement with Dominion Voting Systems has included numerous posts promoting a series of digital trading cards he is selling, attacks on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and bizarre complaints about Elon Musk and alleged censorship on Twitter (where Mr Trump’s account has gone unused since it was restored earlier this year).

But Mr Trump has not weighed in on Fox’s decision to offer more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to Dominion rather than allow a Delaware jury to determine how much the right-wing network should pay for broadcasting repeated lies about the company’s products rather than report the truth because it was upsetting their audience.

Andrew Feinberg reports.

[20 April 2023 02:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Murdoch’s mega Fox payout shows there’s one thing you can’t afford to mess with…

The Independent’s Sean O’Grady writes:

“The truth matters. Lies have consequences”. The lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems put it better than any of Rupert Murdoch’s mercenary army of journalists ever would; or, indeed ever be permitted attempt to do so (the sensational story doesn’t figure much on his channels or in his titles). And it is about time that someone, somewhere, decided “enough already with the fake news”.

Without wishing to come over as sanctimonious – we journalists are all of us flawed – the humiliation of Fox News at the hands of Dominion, a hitherto obscure election machinery company, is a victory for truth.

It’s not as simple as that – because no defamation case of this magnitude can be – but the world is now just a little better off, a little safer, a little more protected from the abuse of media power than it was before Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News decided to cave in to Dominion.

[20 April 2023 03:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial, fails to mention how much they’re paying to make it go away

Fox News has had very little to say about Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6bn defamation lawsuit for nearly the entirety of its existence, but finally deemed the story worth covering on Tuesday when it announced the parties had settled.

In Fox News’ story — which comes in at 256 words, approximately 70 of which are a block quote from a Fox spokesman— we do not learn why the company was sued, just that it was broadly sued for defamation. We also do not learn how much it cost the network to make the trial go away.

(It was $787.5m, in case you missed it.)

Graig Graziosi has the story.

[20 April 2023 04:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Trump’s election lies cost Fox $787m – will they also cost him the White House in 2024?

The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg writes:

For a good portion of the network’s quarter-century on the air, Fox News went by the mantra of “we report, you decide”.

But after the network wholeheartedly embraced Donald Trump in 2016, the reporting became optional because their viewers had already decided.

They decided to believe whatever Trump told them. And when they heard something that contradicted that, they looked elsewhere for more comforting lies.

Two years later, Fox’s audience has remained loyal to Trump, but the twice-impeached ex-president’s lies are still exacting a cost.

Some of that cost may yet to be extracted from Fox’s bottom line.

Another voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, still has a multi-billion dollar lawsuit pending against Fox for many of the same lies that pushed Rupert Murdoch and his organisation to offer more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to get Dominion to drop their case.

But it may be Mr Trump who ultimately pays the highest price.

[20 April 2023 05:00 · Bevan Hurley]

Stephen Colbert shares frustration at Fox-Dominion settlement: ‘Damn it! I want my trial!’

Stephen Colbert could barely contain his laughter as he discussed the news that Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion for $787.5m.

“Damnit! I want my trial! I want it!” he shouted. “I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames.

“I guess it’s satisfying for Dominion that Rup-y had to fork over a pile of cash, but that does nothing for our democracy.”

Isobel Lewis has the full story.

[20 April 2023 05:30 · Shweta Sharma]

Vacationing mediator swooped in last minute in ‘imminent’ trial - report

Up until 9am on Tuesday the prospect of a Fox News-Dominion trial seemed imminent, after both parties failed to hammer out a deal over the weekend.

An email was sent to longtime mediator Jerry Roscoe, who was vacationing in Europe, and ended up reading thousands of pages of documents, preparing to commission calls with lawyers for both sides, reported the Washington Post.

“The parties weren’t too optimistic that it was going to resolve,” he said.

Mr Roscoe conducted around 50 calls on both sides and he realised that Dominion’s monetary demand was not the only issue that was coming in the way of mediation – there were also divisions over the language that Fox would release in the statement.

“Both sides had good lawyers and wanted to see if they could resolve the case,” he said. “But I wasn’t sure we would resolve it until it was actually resolved.”

After the settlement was announced on Tuesday, Mr Roscoe said. “There was just a sense of relief and accomplishment.”

Even though Fox News’ final statement did not issue an apology Dominion said that the sheer size of the settlement was enough and it meant that Dominion held Fox accountable.