The Dominion settlement may be a setback for American democracy — here's why

It cost Fox News nearly $800 million to settle a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, but that’s a pittance compared to what it cost American democracy.

That’s according to The Daily Beast’s Wajahat Ali, who contends that Dominion had a chance to strike a blow against a “disinformation network that knowingly promoted conspiracy theories and lies about the voting company’s role in the 2020 election.”

The Daily Beast columnist writes that: “Dominion Voting, America’s unexpected fighter for its fledgling democracy, settled its $1.6 billion lawsuit with Fox and decided to step out of the ring with a bag of money instead of vanquishing one of the country’s most destructive and influential peddlers of hate and disinformation.”

Fox News acknowledged some wrongdoing in a statement announcing the Dominion settlement, saying that it acknowledged “the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.”

But Ali argues that, although weakened by the lawsuit, the right-wing network remains capable of “being a platform for white nationalist talking points—and is free to double down on its attack on our democracy, marginalized communities, the environment, and the truth.”