Wednesday thread: The Dominion-Fox Corp settlement

Expectation were too high: Fox News took a big hit. Would a trial or even a full-on apology as part of a settlement actually bring down Fox or make much more of a difference?

Just as the much-anticipated trial was about to get underway, Fox and Dominion Voting Systems did what corporations usually do during civil litigation: they came to a settlement agreement rather than go to trial in the $1.6 billion defamation suit Dominion filed against Fox. It was a historic settlement, the largest of its kind, at three-quarters of a billion dollars in damages, or 25% of Fox’s annual profits.

And before it happened, the public got to see pages and pages of damaging text messages, emails, and other communications showing that Fox executives—from Rupert Murdoch on down—and Fox hosts lied and lied again.

Still, it was a letdown for many who thought the trial would drag those hosts through court and somehow bring them down, and maybe even bring Fox down, in the process of helping to save American democracy.

I don’t think that would ever happen, however, no matter how glaring the trial was or how devastating the outcome. And I do think this was probably the best it was going to get, considering that this was about two corporations fighting it out for damages. I’ll explain more below as to why—and I definitely want to hear your thoughts.