Without evidence, the American chain had accused the company Dominion, which manages the electronic voting machines, of having rigged the ballot which had led to the election of Joe Biden.
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Fox News checks out. The American channel reached an agreement on Tuesday April 18 with the electronic voting machine company Dominion and will pay it $787.5 million to avoid an embarrassing lawsuit over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election. company, whose machines operated in 28 states during the presidential election won by Joe Biden, was accused, without proof, on the air of having been used to rig the ballot. Initially, the company was claiming $1.6 billion.
“We are pleased to have reached a settlement of our dispute with Dominion Voting Systems”, the conservative channel said in a statement. For his part, John Poulos, the boss of Dominion, said that Fox News had “admitted to telling lies” who have “caused enormous damage to my business, our employees and our customers”. “Nothing Can Fix This”he added.
No excuses on air
According to American media, the terms of the agreement spare Fox News hosts a humiliating exercise: to apologize on the air or admit to having broadcast lies. It also saves the pearl of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire from suffering “the libel suit of the century”as described by the New York Times.
Even before the proceedings, the procedure had given rise to an embarrassing unpacking for Fox News, with the publication of exchanges of emails or text messages showing that stars of the chain, and even Rupert Murdoch, hardly believed, in November 2020, to the scenario of a rigged election, while the accusations flourished on the air.
Even if the channel will soon be able to turn the Dominion page, it may not be at the end of its troubles. The channel is being sued by another company, Smartmatic, in a similar case.
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