Couldn’t they do that in response to the suit, then? Seems pretty simple.
Indeed, it seems pretty simple.
I want to make sure we’re on the same page here. This is what the court records of this case show thus far:
Fox published/broadcast the claims without doing such interviews.
Dominion sent Fox multiple warnings that what Fox was broadcasting/publishing was untrue (and why it was untrue). This was Fox’s first opportunity to demonstrate that they had some regard over the veracity of the claims. Fox continued to publish the claims without also airing any official response from Dominion (other than to off-handedly say that Dominion denied the allegations).
Then Fox got sued for defamation. Here’s Fox’s second chance to show that they had regard for the veracity of the claims. Fox may have been able to avoid court completely if they had offered to interview Dominion executives (or to at least report on the specifics of Dominion’s denial) on-air. They didn’t.
So why didn’t they? Discovery (emails/text messages and deposition testimony) shows that they were worried about their ratings.
Fox now has a chance to avoid further court action with Smartmatic, who has filed a $2.7 billion suit against them.
This will be Fox’s 3rd (at least) opportunity to show that they have some regard for the veracity of the claims it published.
So yeah, I agree, it seems simple—unless you’re trying to protect your ratings.
It would appear that this settlement makes no demand that Fox publish/broadcast any admission of wrong doing. So once again Fox has to make the decision to show regard for the truth, or protect their ratings.