The company of the ultra-conservative television channel Fox reached an economic agreement on Tuesday that allows it to avoid the trial for the embarrassing lawsuit for defamation that, with a request for 1,600 million euros in compensation, the vote counting company Dominion Voting Systems raised against as a result of his lies about an alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential elections.
According to the last-minute agreement, announced by the judge in the case after the selection of the members of the jury, the Murdoch television outlet will pay Dominion 787.5 million dollars, that is, 812.5 less than what the company asked. It would seem that he was clear that he was going to lose.
But, above all, the agreed solution spares Fox the shame of a massive reproduction of the falsehoods and manipulations it incurred to support Donald Trump in his complaint of electoral tongo.
Above partisan support for Trump, however, the objective of Fox's lies was none other than to stop the drain on audiences and income that a first attempt to tell the truth was costing it from the moment it one of its journalists had dared to deny the loser of the elections.
The judge had provided that the main officials of the media company, including the magnate Rupert Murdoch, 92, and the star presenters of the chain, with the ultra Tucker Carlson at the head, appear as witnesses at the oral hearing.
It was "the libel trial of the century," as The New York Times called it.
Dominion accused Fox News of presenting the company as an instrument at the service of the Democrats to rig the elections.
“We acknowledge the court's ruling that certain assertions about Dominion are false," Fox admitted to Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis. "This settlement reflects Fox's continued commitment to the highest standards journalistic We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, will allow the country to move forward leaving these issues behind."
"Lies have consequences," Dominion's attorney, Justin Nelson, said at a news conference outside the courthouse where he had just sealed the deal.
