The NYT was happy to publish the lies. Hell, they won a Pulitzer for it. When your "source" is the Director of the FBI, and senior officials in the CIA and DOJ, you can get away with printing whatever they say. Other than Trump, Popadopolis and a few individuals, who has standing? And who do they sue, Wray, Comey, Brennan, Lynch, etc for telling lies? Or the NYT for publishing them?
In contrast, these lawsuits against FOX are Corporation vs Corporation. If these companies can prove the claims false, and show that they were injured, then FNC is going to lose. I doubt they pay "billions", but they might have to pay millions plus issue more apologies and retractions.
Our local Fox affiliate had a story about Trump bashing the RINOs that did not support his exposing the election fraud. They called it baseless, but OAN has stories about a number of states investigating it.