The former president, whose lies about the 2020 election were central to Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News, has not commented on Fox’s decision to settle the case.
Trump and Fox News
On Tuesday, on the eve of a planned trial in Delaware, Fox Corp. agreed to settle the lawsuit filed against it by Dominion Voting Systems, for a reported $787.5 million. Dominion had sued Fox, as well as other media outlets, for airing baseless conspiracy theories that Dominion had participated in a plot to rig the 2020 election.
After months of embarrassment for Fox, including released text messages from Fox’s on-air talent, Fox agreed to pay a high nine-figure amount to put the matter to rest.
“We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues,” Fox said in a statement, per the AP.
Some opponents of Trump, and of Fox News, expressed disappointment that the trial won’t take place, as they were hoping for more damning revelations to come out during the trial. But Dominion’s lawyers had a fiduciary duty to do the best for their clients, rather than inflict political damage or “save democracy.” And while Fox will likely feel pain from paying nearly $800 million, regardless of the outcome of the trial, Fox News was going to remain a going concern, and not cease to exist.
But another interesting wrinkle is that the man whose lines began the process, Donald Trump, has said nothing about the settlement since it was announced on Tuesday. Most of Trump’s Truth Social posts recently have been about taking shots at Gov. Ron DeSantis and promoting his latest collection of digital trading cards.
Trump, prior to the start of the planned trial, had given Fox advice on how to approach the trial: To argue that the conspiracy theories were in fact true.
“FOX NEWS IS IN BIG TROUBLE IF THEY DO NOT EXPOSE THE TRUTH ON CHEATING IN THE 2020 ELECTION. THEY SHOULD DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR AMERICA,” Trump said in an April 17 Truth Social post. “WHEN RUPERT MURDOCH SAYS THAT THERE WAS NO CHEATING IN LIGHT OF THE MASSIVE PROOF THAT WAS THERE, IT IS RIDICULOUS AND VERY HARMFUL TO THE FOX CASE. PERHAPS HE SHOULD SAY THAT “HE JUST DIDN’T KNOW,” BUT THAT IS HARD TO BELIEVE. RUPERT, JUST TELL THE TRUTH AND GOOD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. THE ELECTION OF 2020 WAS RIGGED AND STOLLEN…YOU KNOW IT, & SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE!”
That strategy, alas, has proved a nonstarter, and instead, long after Fox admitted the election conspiracies weren’t true, they opted to settle.
Trump’s relationship with Fox has had its ups and downs, and numerous reports last year stated that Murdoch was ready to move on and that there was an unofficial ban on Trump appearing on the network for live interviews. That ban appears to be history, with the former president appearing for interviews with both Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson in recent weeks, after both hosts traveled to Mar-a-Lago.
Politico reported earlier this week that Fox and Trump had experienced a “re-embrace,” with the former president way ahead in most polls of the Republican race. Hosts on the channel, in particular, mostly defended Trump after he was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
“I think President Trump has completely changed the presidency and even running for president where Americans and the media are accustomed to having elected officials and political leaders who are accessible and transparent and willing to tell the voters what they’re thinking in real time,” Jason Miller, an adviser to Trump who has returned to the fold, told Politico. “You can’t just walk out to a podium, give remarks and walk back into the next room. That’s not how the presidency works.”
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist.
