Fox News Struggles as It Faces 1 Trillion Won Compensation for Claiming "Vote Counting Manipulation"

Counting Machine Company: "There Are Consequences for Lies"

Fox News, which focused on the possibility of vote-counting machine manipulation while claiming fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, has agreed to pay $787.5 million (approximately 1.0391 trillion KRW) to the company involved.

On the 18th (local time), foreign media including The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that Fox agreed to this settlement regarding the defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, the voting and counting machine company.

[Image source=Pixabay]

Previously, the conservative-leaning Fox News repeatedly reported conspiracy theories claiming that Dominion manipulated the voting results to secure the victory of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

The reports at the time stated that votes cast for former President Donald Trump were switched to votes for President Biden, resulting in Trump's defeat in the election where Trump and Biden faced off.

Dominion, which supplied voting machines to 28 states during the election, filed a $1.6 billion (approximately 2 trillion KRW) lawsuit against Fox in January 2021.

Fox News requested the Delaware Superior Court to dismiss the lawsuit last year, but the request was denied, and the lawsuit continued. During this process, emails and testimonies from Fox News revealed that prominent Fox hosts and executives aired election fraud reports while expressing doubts about the truthfulness of these claims.

The Dominion defamation case against Fox News will end once a judge formally accepts this settlement.

John Poulos (second from left), CEO of Dominion Voting Systems, a U.S. voting and ballot counting machine company, is leaving the Leonard Williams Justice Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on the 18th (local time) with his legal team.
[Photo by AP and Yonhap News]

Justin Nielsen, Dominion's attorney, said in a media interview, "The truth matters, and lies have consequences."

However, if the trial had actually proceeded, it might have been difficult to prove that Fox News executives should be held responsible for false broadcasts under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects freedom of the press and speech, according to experts cited by the Associated Press.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1964 that for defamation by the media to be established, it must be proven that the media acted with actual malice in reporting false claims.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.