Lead lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems, Davida Brook, expressed satisfaction with Fox’s apology.
Fox News has agreed to pay $787.5m- about half of the $1.6bn Dominion Voting Systems initially claimed – as settlement over false claims about the US presidential elections in 2020. Davida Brook, the lead lawyer for Dominion, welcomed the last-minute settlement and said that the huge sum paid by Fox demonstrates that it was aware of the harm caused to Dominion’s business by its reporting.
Brook told CBS, the BBC US partner, that Dominion also wanted an apology.”When a company like Fox apologises, it apologises with money,” she said. Dominion argued that false claims about rigged elections harmed its business.
The settlement came after months of litigation during which Dominion filed a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox and several other defendants. Fox has agreed that the payout will be one of the largest settlements in the history of third-party defamation lawsuits.
Fox has issued a statement announcing its settlement with Dominion stating that it resolved the dispute without admitting any liability or wrongdoing.
The settlement underscores the potential culpability of media outlets that peddle false and misleading information about election outcomes, thereby undermining the American democracy. However, it also brings hope that businesses and individuals that feel unfairly targeted could now find justice with sufficiently large compensation.
