A win for Fox, a loss for us.

On 18 April, Fox News Corp. settled their dispute with Dominion Voting Systems over false allegations that Dominion’s voting machines had switched millions of votes for Donald Trump to Joe Biden. Not only was it demonstrated that the allegations were false, but internal Fox correspondence showed that the reporters knew they were false.

Without going into the details, Dominion Voting Systems sued the Fox News Corp. for $1.6 billion in damages for defamation, and had an absolutely solid case against Fox. The case actually reached trial but was halted almost immediately in order for the litigants to reach an “amicable” settlement. In the out of court settlement, Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million. This may seem like a lot of money to the average American, but it’s chump change to a corporation as large as Fox News whose reported earnings last year amounted to $2.96 billion (before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

In my view, Dominion Voting Systems did the public a disservice by settling the case out of court. I had hoped to see Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham take the stand and face the choice of perjuring themselves or openly admitting to the public that they blatantly lied about the election. As it turned out, Fox completely avoided any kind of accountability. In fact, it was a real victory for Fox News Corp. and a real setback for the American people as it gave tacit approval for the media to lie about anything with the only possible repercussions being the loss of a little profit.

Mainstream media has been suffering a loss of credibility for a long time, even before the Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction debacle. The Fox/Dominion trial should have been a showcase event letting the media know that they will be held accountable for false reporting. Instead it gave the media tacit approval to publish whatever is convenient and profitable.

Our country’s founders rightly claimed that a democracy can only survive with an informed electorate, and that a free and honest press is absolutely necessary for providing accurate and timely information. Today, it is questionable just how free our media is, and given the evidence of its dishonesty, it bodes ill for our democracy.