by Ryan McMaken, Mises Institute:

In March 2021, Dominion Voting Systems—a company that produces electronic voting equipment and software—sued Fox New Channel for $1.6 billion. Dominion claimed the company had been harmed by allegedly false claims made by Fox program hosts and guests about Dominion’s role in alleged efforts to rig the 2020 US presidential election. In April 2023, Fox New Channel settled with Dominion for $787.6 million. Dominion still has other lawsuits pending against other parties, including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

The Fox settlement over a defamation lawsuit comes less than a year after Alex Jones was ordered to pay $965 million in a lawsuit over things he said on his show about the Sandy Hook massacre. Both lawsuits were centered around merely saying things that other people didn’t like being said. Both suits were also centered on politically charged topics of public interest. Both lawsuits also demonstrated how defamation laws can be used to silence people and punish them for making controversial political statements. Moreover, it’s clear that both Jones and Fox news commentators were expressing these views as journalists.