Trump’s fantastical claims cost Fox News almost a billion dollars

The Guardian reports:

Fox and the voting equipment company Dominion reached a US$787.5m settlement in a closely watched defamation lawsuit, ending a dispute over whether the network and its parent company knowingly broadcast false and outlandish allegations that Dominion was involved in a plot to steal the 2020 election.

That is a lot of money. Almost $1.3 billion in NZ dollars.

It is almost impossible in the US for a company to win a defamation case against a media organisation due to the first amendment. But the claims by Trump and his proxies were so clearly wrong (and Fox knew they were wrong) that they were facing a high probability of losing, hence they settled.

It is worth noting that if even one sliver of truth was attached to them, it would have come out. But what actually came out is that everyone knew the claims were batshit crazy, but they wanted to appease Trump’s cultish followers, so they aired them regardless.

That’s a billion dollar mistake they won’t make again.