NEW YORK (AP) – Fox News paid $787 million to settle a recent lawsuit over its reporting after the 2020 election to avoid a divisive lawsuit and a lengthy appeals process, its parent company’s chief executive said Tuesday. .
Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation, also noted that a Delaware judge “severely limited” Fox’s defense against Dominion Voting Systems, which it said the network did by airing bogus allegations of election fraud. slandered him, which he knew to be untrue.
Fox Corp announced Tuesday that it had lost $50 million over the past three months, which it attributed to the settlement of the lawsuit. Murdoch, who answered questions from financial analysts, was speaking publicly for the first time since the case ended and Fox fired its most popular anchor, Tucker Carlson.
Murdoch said that viewers and investors should not expect any change of direction from Fox News.
“We made the business decision to resolve this dispute and avoid the acrimony of a divisive trial and multi-year appeals process, a decision clearly in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” he added.
Murdoch said that Fox still believes that it was properly exercising its First Amendment rights to report on the new fraud allegations made by former President Donald Trump, even though that defense was pre-empted in the Dominion case. By decision of the trial court was shot.
This is significant, as Murdoch said Fox intends to use the same defense against a similar lawsuit by another election technology company, Smartmatic. That case is not expected to be heard until at least 2025, he said.
Despite being asked directly about Carlson’s exit, Murdoch did not mention the former prime-time host by name and obliquely referred to his reign. Fox has not explained why it severed ties with Carlson.
“There is no change in programming strategy at Fox News,” he said. “It’s clearly a successful strategy. As always, we’re adjusting our programming and our lineup and that’s what we continue to do.
Although hurt by Carlson’s exit, Fox News remains the dominant cable news network.
Fox has lost viewers since Carlson’s firing. The Nielsen Company said last week’s substitute host, Lawrence Jones, reached between 1.28 million and 1.7 million last week, where Carlson usually draws about 3 million.
Yet Fox has secured more than 40 new advertisers in that hour, the network said, confirming a report in Variety. Advertisers such as Gillette, Scotts Miracle Gro and Secret Deodorant have signed on to what Carlson considered a toxic environment.
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