By Promise Eze
Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a voting machine maker’s defamation lawsuit over the network’s 2020 election broadcasts, striking a deal on the brink of a potentially embarrassing six-week trial.
The settlement — about half of the $1.6bn initially sought by Dominion — was reached a few minutes before trial on Tuesday.
The case is the largest publicly known defamation settlement in US history involving a media company, CNN reports.
The case is the largest publicly known defamation settlement in US history involving a media company, CNN reports.
Fox was accused of reporting that Dominion’s vote counting machines were used to rig the presidential election in favour of President Joe Biden.
Dominion said its business was harmed by Fox’s alleged defamation.
John Poulos, Dominion chief executive officer, said Fox admitted to spreading disinformation and called the settlement “historic”.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and our customers,” Poulos said.
“Truthful reporting in the media is essential to our democracy.”
In a statement, Fox said the settlement was a commitment to holding itself to the highest journalistic standards and urged the US to move forward from the situation.
Meanwhile, Smartmatic, another US voting technology company, is pursuing its own defamation lawsuit against Fox News, seeking $2.7 billion in damages over false election rigging claims.
This is coming in a time when the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has continuously cautioned Nigerian broadcast stations to adhere strictly to its broadcast code, the Electoral Act as well as other extant laws governing the coverage and reportage of the 2023 general polls.
Recently, NBC fined Channels Television N5 million for allegedly violating the NBC code in a programme with the Labour Party vice-presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed. The NBC communicated the fine to Channels in a letter signed by its Director General, Balarabe Ilelah, on 27 March.
