Fox News, the cable network known for its conservative views, has agreed to pay $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems to settle a defamation lawsuit. The settlement is believed to be one of the largest in a defamation case in the history of the United States.
The settlement was announced on Monday, April 17, and the terms of the deal have not been disclosed. However, the payment immediately puts the Fox-Dominion agreement in the upper echelon of publicly disclosed damages and other payouts in defamation cases.
Before the Fox-Dominion settlement, the largest penalty in a defamation case was ordered against Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones in November 2022. A jury ordered him to pay over $1.4 billion to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Connecticut.
In the past, most of the largest publicly disclosed penalties for defamation were in the low nine figures. For instance, in 2017, ABC News settled with Beef Products Inc. for $177 million after a report on a processed meat product known as “pink slime” was aired. The Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, disclosed the payment in a financial filing. However, a lawyer said the actual settlement amount was higher since Disney’s insurers were also involved.
Another notable case occurred 20 years ago, when a federal jury in Texas awarded $222 million to a brokerage firm that sued Dow Jones & Company, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The firm claimed that a 1993 article in The Journal contained false statements that harmed their business. However, the damages were later thrown out in subsequent court proceedings.
The settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems marks the end of a bitter legal battle that began after the 2020 presidential election. Dominion had accused Fox News and other conservative media outlets of spreading false conspiracy theories about their voting machines being rigged. Fox News had denied any wrongdoing, but the settlement indicates the network’s willingness to move on from the lawsuit.