• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, April 20, 2023

“We lied to you. And we knew it as we were doing it.”  That is a statement that Fox on-air hosts -- especially those prime-time opinion-oriented personalities -- are unlikely ever to say on air.

We don't know how hard Dominion Voting Systems pursued an apology as part of its $787.5 million settlement of its defamation case against Fox.

Perhaps it should have tried harder -- especially if other conspiracy stories about election fraud connected to voting systems keep coming in future years.

On-air apologies by Fox would be a warning sign to other conservative TV news organizations that in future years might continue to follow the Fox News Channel playbook. Those network executives may be thinking about that now -- or not.

News organizations everywhere have been noting corrections/clarifications in content and stories for as long as journalism has existed. But there is no uniform way to do this. Not all of these appear on the front page of a newspaper -- or as a lead story spoken by an on-air TV host/journalist.

On Tuesday -- the day of the announcement -- media reporter for Fox News Channel Howard Kurtz, discussing the case, did say the conspiracy theories the network aired were “obviously false.” 

On that same day, the Fox News website wrote a story about the settlement. Fox News Channel itself also has been airing a standard story on the deal.

Long-term, the Dominion case may give other possible organizations and companies that believe they also have been defamed a blueprint for how to field and pursue lawsuits against Fox.

This includes another voting machine company, Smartmatic, which has filed a bigger $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox. 

Without issuing a correction, or at least a clarification, some loyal Fox News Channel viewers -- who to date still believe the election was stolen and that those voting machine companies had something to do with it -- may be at best scratching their heads. 

Going forward, it all comes down to marketing and messaging -- especially now that an on-air apology/clarification does seem to be coming. 

The presiding judge on the case, Eric Davis, says what Fox was attempting to do with election fraud claims reporting was false -- alluding to producers, executives and news anchors knowing this before it aired those stories. Davis says this was “crystal clear.” 

What is the future marketing messaging now from Fox News Channel with regard to its journalism? Change, no change, or perhaps some clarity?