At the last minute before the case goes to trial, conservative US broadcaster Fox News reached a settlement with Dominion, agreeing to pay it $787.5 million (about €717 million) related to the spread of fake news from a news channel. about the 2020 US presidential election.

The then-Donald Trump-friendly network’s two-year dispute with Dominion Voting Systems and the eventual out-of-court settlement of damages from the channel owned by Rupert Murdoch destroyed any justice left in Fox News, which he now blatantly distanced himself from the former U.S. president.

The $787.5 million settlement is the largest publicly known defamation agreement in US history involving a media company.

The deal was announced hours after jurors were sworn into the Delaware Supreme Court, which is none other than the home state of incumbent Joe Biden. Rumors of a settlement circulated in court when, after a lunch break, the proceedings were abruptly halted for almost three hours without any explanation, with the parties apparently reaching an agreement.

The unprecedented settlement “represents rehabilitation and accountability,” Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said: “For our democracy to last another 250 years and hopefully much longer, we must share our commitment to the facts…Today is a resounding eulogy for truth and democracy. .”

The conservative network said in a statement that it “acknowledges the court decisions that found false claims about the Dominion,” referring to the recent ruling that 20 Fox News broadcasts since the end of 2020 contained grossly false claims that the Dominion rigged the presidential election. Fox, on the other hand, won’t have to admit on-air that it lied about Dominion, a company spokesperson told CNN.

This decision is a setback not only for the news network, but also for Trump’s narrative, which hopes for re-election through the Republican anointing. His allegations of fraud in the 2020 elections have now lost even more ground.

Source: CNN