ABC/CNN anc. press Dominion over Fox: ‘What you didn’t get was an apology’

Source: The Hill | April 19, 2023 | Julia Shapero

ABC, CNN anchors press Dominion over Fox News settlement: ‘What you didn’t get was an apology’

Anchors from ABC News and CNN questioned representatives of Dominion Voting Systems in the wake of their massive $787 million settlement with Fox News on Tuesday over the network’s lack of a public apology in the last-minute agreement. 

Dominion and Fox News reached a settlement just hours before opening arguments were set to get underway in the defamation trial over the network’s coverage of former President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

ABC News host George Stephanopoulos pressed Dominion CEO John Poulos on the lack of a public apology on Wednesday, noting that the agreement was “one of the biggest defamation settlements ever, but what you didn’t get was an apology.”

Poulos pointed to Fox News’s acknowledgement in its statement following the settlement. The network said it acknowledges “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

“At the end of the day, the court system really is about accountability,” he said. “We feel we got it.”

However, Stephanopoulous reiterated that Fox News only acknowledged that the judge said the claims about voter fraud were falsehoods, adding that the network “didn’t admit to falsehoods or apologize for them.”

“Is that enough?” the news anchor asked.

“Well, if you look at the documents, I think they speak for themselves,” Poulos said.

Dominion’s lead counsel Justin Nelson similarly told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Tuesday that the company felt it had held Fox News accountable with the settlement. 

“I think, for us, really, it wasn’t so much about a settlement as a settlement,” Nelson said. “It was always about accountability. And today, what we think we achieved was accountability and vindication.”

“For us, not only of course was there over a three-quarters of a billion-dollar damages award, but as you mentioned in your opening, there was an admission, an acknowledgement, of the court’s summary judgement order that found these lies about Dominion to be false,” he continued.

However, Brown pushed back on the accountability issue, noting that Fox News’s acknowledgement was “not necessarily a full-throated admission.”

“The reality is millions of people in the United States won’t necessarily know about this,” Brown said. “I mean, do the viewers of Fox, are they owed an apology or retraction here? I mean, if they don’t know about this, where is the accountability that you speak of?”

Nelson responded that Dominion “took the civil litigation as far as we can take it.” 

……..

Tagged: , , , ,

Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)
Viewing 1 post (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.