A last-minute push to avert a trial of the century
Monday was to be the start of the biggest defamation trial in recent American history — but opening proceedings in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News over on-air remarks about the 2020 election were delayed by a day.
The presiding judge is expected to make an announcement at 9 a.m. Eastern, but several news outlets reported that Fox was seeking an out-of-court settlement. Rupert Murdoch’s media colossus has good reason to do: The trial will air the private exchanges of executives and on-air hosts, among the most influential in television news — and there’s a lot of money on the line.
Fox made an 11th-hour push to reach a deal, according to reports, with both sides expected to meet on Monday to try to negotiate a last-minute truce. The companies had previously participated in mediation talks in December, to no avail.
Defamation cases rarely reach a jury: Just three did so in 2017, David Logan of the Roger…
This article was written by Andrew Ross Sorkin, Ravi Mattu, Bernhard Warner, Sarah Kessler, Michael J. de la Merced, Lauren Hirsch and Ephrat Livni and originally published on www.nytimes.com