Dominion Voting Systems wins big

Dominion Voting Systems gained everything a trial might have brought them: a large cash settlement, admission from Fox that it made false statements about Dominion, and plenty of exposure that lying is a core part of Fox’s business model. All without risk and delay from a trial and appeal. This is a huge win for Dominion. While a trial would have have forced some of Fox’s personalities and board members to the witness stand, pretrial discovery and depositions already exposed their practices in significant detail. Including the fact that Fox consciously pushed Trump’s Big Lie, knowing it was bullshit, in order to keep its MAGA audience from migrating to more delusional outlets.

Dominion is pursuing some of that competition, with suits against NewsMax and OAN in the wings. Those networks’ lawyers should be fretting how things went against Fox. Having smaller purses, they will have a tougher time paying to make these suits go away.

Fox is not yet clear of legal troubles from pushing the Big Lie. It is being sued by Smartmatic, on similar grounds. They have the advantage of going second, and learning from Dominion’s suit.

Fox’s board also is facing a shareholder lawsuit, arguing they violated their fiduciary duty by letting the company expose itself. In that suit, an interesting defense might argue that peddling MAGA lies has been quite profitable, even with the occasional defamation payout, and that the shareholders should have known Fox’s business practices when they bought the stock. Those weren’t secret.

Photo shows the lead character, Lonesome Rhodes, from Elia Kazan’s 1957 movie A Face in the Crowd. That film was quite prescient in showing how a Rush Limbaugh or Tucker Carlson could enrapture an audience with lies. The plot naively assumed such audience would dissipate, once the lies were exposed. The MAGA cult won’t read Dominion’s motion for summary judgment. They will make all sorts of excuses why Rupert Murdoch paid out near a billion dollars, rather than risk trial. They will forgive all, so long as Fox News keeps supplying the lies they love.

Advertisement