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
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Your support makes all the difference.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.
Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial, fails to mention how much they’re paying to make it go away
Dominion v Fox News: The people and networks still being sued by voting company over election lies
How the almost-trial of Dominion v Fox exploded into a Succession-worthy finale- Don’t be disappointed by the Fox News vs Dominion outcome – this is just the start
Fox News acknowledges $787.5m settlement for first time
In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, Fox Corporation has acknowledged for the first time the massive $787.5m settlement payout to Dominion Voting Systems.
The filing included a statement issued by Fox after the last-minute deal was reached on Tuesday, and was signed by the public company’s chief legal and policy officer Viet Dinh.
Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, noted on Twitter that Fox Corporation had previously said in an SEC quarterly filing in February that it did not anticipate that the Dominion defamation lawsuit “will have a material adverse effect on its business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.”
Fox Dominion payout becomes largest media settlement in history
The settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems has become the largest publicly known payout ever struck by an American media company.
Fox Corp and Fox News on Tuesday settled a defamation lawsuit slapped against it by Dominion by agreeing to pay $787.5m to the voting equipment company.
The last-second settlement was announced just hours after a jury was sworn in at the Delaware Superior Court in what could have been the most high-profile trial involving the US’s most-watched cable news network.
Fox Dominion payout becomes largest media settlement in history
Payout is 10 times Dominion’s valuation in 2018
Fox case just one front in Dominion's larger legal battle
Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox, which was settled with a huge payout of $787.5m, is part of a broader legal campaign by the company to seek accountability from companies and individuals whom it claims have spread falsehoods about its technology.
Mike Lindell
Dominion in February 2021 filed a $1.3bn suit against MyPillow Inc and its chief executive, election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell, who falsely claimed that Dominion’s voting machines were used to rig the 2020 US presidential election. Mr Lindell has countersued Dominion.
Other conservative networks
Dominion in August 2021 separately sued two conservative media networks, One America News Network and Newsmax Media Inc, for making similar debunked claims about vote rigging.
The two suits each seek more than $1.6bn in damages.
Trump lawyers
Dominion also has lawsuits pending against former Trump lawyers, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, over the vote rigging claims.
Mr Powell has denied the allegations. Mr Giuliani previously called the lawsuit as another act of intimidation by the hate-filled left-wing to wipe out and censor the exercise of free speech, according to the New York Times.
Each suit against the lawyers seeks at least $1.3bn in damages.
Ex-Fox News host says network’s ‘greed and disinformation is a danger to democracy'
Former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson blasted its former employer for valuing profits and ratings over truth and media integrity.
Speaking to CNN, Ms Carlson the Donald Trump-hating messaging revealed by Dominion in the lawsuit represents the “travesty” of the network.
“Because I think it’s actually a threat to American democracy to promote that kind of misinformation,” she said.
“Let me be clear. There is a huge difference between espousing conservative viewpoints and having an intellectual conversation between conservatives and liberals, which I think is very important — there’s a huge difference between that and telling lies to the American public, and that’s where we have now become in the evolution of Fox News, at least with regard to the 2020 election and January 6th.”
Last minute brinkmanship and overseas assist end Fox case
Before pulling back from the brink of a trial, Fox News and Dominion Voting systems faced a stern deadline — not from an impatient judge or jury, but from a man on a Danube River cruise with his wife half a world away.
A mediator hired late Sunday pushed the two sides toward a $787 million settlement that brought a stunning end to the most-watched media libel case in decades, one that sought to put a price on lies told about the 2020 presidential election on conservative America‘s most popular news outlet.
“It’s a deadline that I always impose because I know that once a jury is empaneled and opening statements are made, then one or other of the parties will dig into their positions,” Jerry Roscoe, of the Washington-based JAMS mediation service, said Wednesday. “It makes negotiations much more difficult.”
Last minute brinkmanship and overseas assist end Fox case
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems pulled back from the brink of a contentious libel trial with a little assist from overseas
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.
The Succession-worthy finale of the Dominion v Fox nearly-trial
A made-for-TV courtroom drama that would never be televised and one of the biggest-yet attempts to hold someone accountable for 2020 election lies ended outside a Delaware courtroom, Alex Woodward writes from Wilmington
Fox News to benefit from tax write-off over settlement
Fox News looks set to benefit from a tax write-off from its $787m payout to Dominion Voting Systems, it has been revealed.
Fox Corporation executive Brian Nick confirmed to Lever News that the historic settlement is tax deductible but would not reveal the amount that the network will be able to write off.
However the revelation means that the landmark payout – the largest in US history for a libel case – might not harm Fox News’ profits as much as expected.
Jake Tapper struggles to keep a straight face as he reads Fox reaction to Dominion victory
CNN anchor Jake Tapper couldn’t help but chuckle on Tuesday as he announced the news that Fox News averted a bruising defamation trial over false election claims by paying a $787.5m (£633m) settlement to voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems.
The host hesitated multiple times as he read a statement from Fox News, which framed the settlement as a sign of “Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards” and a move which “allows the country to move forward from these issues.”
Tapper, for his part, told viewers the settlement “can only be interpreted as one of the ugliest and most embarrassing moments in the history of journalism”.
CNN’s Jake Tapper laughs as he reads Fox reaction to Dominion settlement
Fox claimed isettlement demonstrated its ‘continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards’
Tucker Carlson laughs at people being laid off in Elon Musk interview
Fox News host Tucker Carlson cracked a smile as he listened to Elon Musk describe slashing 80 per cent of Twitter’s employees after taking over.
“Turns out you don’t need all that many people to run Twitter,” Mr Musk said. “If you’re not trying to run some kind of glorified activist organisation, and you’re not caring that much about censorship, you can really let go of a lot of people it turns out.”
Carlson, in an interview that aired this week on the network, called the layoffs “one of the great business stories of the year,” and recounted a story of having dinner with an executive who praised Mr Musk for “firing the staff stuff.”
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.
Don’t be disappointed by the Fox v Dominion outcome – this is just the start | Voices
It’s important to acknowledge that the lawsuit provides some accountability
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