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
Dominion’s private equity owner says: 'We exposed the truth’
In an interview with Reuters out this morning, the head of a private equity firm that owns Dominion Voting Systems said they had held Fox News accountable.
Staple Street Capital’s Hootan Yaghoobzadeh told the news wire: “We exposed the truth and we did create accountability for their actions.”
Mr Yaghoobzadeh told Reuters that Fox’s “despicable” practices had been laid bare through the discovery process, and they had achieved their goals from the $787.5m settlement.
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.
Fox News finally covers the Dominion trial, and it is embarrassing
The settlement robs the public of any further revelations about Fox News’ impact on democracy
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.
Stephen Colbert shares frustration at Fox-Dominion settlement
‘I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames!’ late-night host joked
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 needs to choose between news and opinion, former political editor says
Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt, who was fired after correctly calling Arizona for Joe Biden in 2020, told the Washington Post that the network needs to choose between news and opinion.
“Where they can’t stay is being a little bit news,” he told the Post. “There’s too much exposure attached to that.”
Mr Stirewalt said that Fox and the broader right-wing movement had shifted towards telling voters and viewers what they wanted to hear, while ignoring hard truths.
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.
Trump’s election lies cost Fox $787m – will they also cost him 2024?
The truth-averse right-wing network has been punished for its greed and fear. But the ex-president could be set to pay an even higher price
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
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.
From Rudy Giuliani to Newsmax, everyone Dominion is suing for election lies
Dominion has pending lawsuits against right-wing networks Newsmax and OAN, and Trump allies Mike Lindell, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, writes Bevan Hurley
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.”
Josh Marcus has the full story.
Tucker Carlson laughs at people being laid off in Elon Musk interview
Pair also discussed abortion and alien life
Trump remains silent on Fox’s Dominion lawsuit settlement
The former American president who was once a fixture on Fox News before turning against the network after losing the 2020 election has remained silent on the right-wing channel’s decision to settle a defamation lawsuit with the voting machine maker he had falsely accused of rigging the election.
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.
But Mr Trump has not weighed in on Fox’s decision to offer more than three-quarters of a billion dollars to Dominion since his last tweet on the issue on Monday.
“If Fox would finally admit that there was large scale cheating & irregularities in the 2020 presidential election, which would be a good thing for them, & for America, the case against them, which should not have existed at all, would be greatly weakened,” he said.
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