Court findings from the largest defamation settlement in US media history show how directly ownership can shape coverage
Fox News presents one of the clearest documented cases of ownership shaping editorial risk in modern American media. Fox Corporation is chaired by the Murdoch family, and its legal record includes the largest publicly disclosed defamation settlement in US media history.
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems settled a defamation suit for $787.5 million in April 2023, moments before opening arguments were set to begin. Dominion had sued in 2021 for $1.6 billion, alleging the network defamed the company by broadcasting baseless claims that it was tied to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, that it paid kickbacks to politicians, and that its machines rigged the 2020 election. Ahead of the settlement, the presiding judge sanctioned the network for withholding evidence and ruled that Fox could not use newsworthiness as a legal defence, materially narrowing its trial strategy.
Court filings established the central role ownership played in the case. The judge ruled that a jury would have to decide whether Fox Corporation exercised enough control over Fox News to be held responsible for statements aired on it, and separately found that Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch may have acted with actual malice, meaning there was a reasonable inference they knew Dominion had not manipulated the election or at least recklessly disregarded the truth when the network aired the claims. Dominion’s complaint went further, characterising the Murdoch family as playing a central and public role in managing and overseeing Fox News, directly linking the ownership structure to specific editorial decisions in a way none of its major broadcast competitors has had tested in court to the same degree.
A related suit brought by Smartmatic, seeking $2.7 billion in damages, remains unresolved. Fox Corporation has stated it continues to believe the Smartmatic litigation is without merit and intends to defend against it vigorously, including through any appeals, according to its most recent annual filings.
On reliability, Ad Fontes Media notes a consistent pattern worth flagging for readers: the Fox News website scores as more reliable and less biased than the Fox News television network. The same divergence appears at MS NOW, formerly MSNBC, suggesting the widest bias gap for both major cable news brands sits between their broadcast and digital output rather than within the digital output alone.
Sources
NBC News, “Fox News and Dominion reach $787.5 million settlement in defamation lawsuit,” April 2023
Nolo, “Understanding the Dominion v. Fox News Defamation Lawsuit”
CBS News, “Dominion Voting v. Fox News lawsuit: Who’s who in the high-stakes defamation trial?”
Wikipedia, “Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network”
Fox Corp, Form ARS, SEC filing, FY2025
Ad Fontes Media, “New Flagship Media Bias Chart Features 137 Web, Podcast and TV/Video Sources,” January 2026