Fox's $787.5M defamation deal is record-setting, massive and painful: Experts

After Fox's $787.5 million settlement averted a historic defamation trial, pundits across the political spectrum rushed to play down the deal. For Fox News critics on the left, the payout amounted to less than half of what Dominion Voting Systems demanded, averted an embarrassing six-week trial, and would be dusted off the shoulders by an unrepentant news giant. The Atlantic flatly declared: "Fox News Lost the Lawsuit but Won the War," and a prominent reporter for Mother Jones poo-pooed it as the network's cost of doing business. News outlets on the political right largely whistled past the legal earthquake that had just transpired. Fox News went on with its regular programming, and the pro-Donald Trump outlet The Federalist simply ignored it. Inside the media bar, attorneys were far less blasé. Three prominent First Amendment lawyers uniformly agreed that Fox's settlement was record-setting, massive, and would be too painful for the network to ignore. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.