The settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems could open the floodgates for other media companies to be punished for spreading lies, Dominion CEO John Poulos said Wednesday.
In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America, Poulos said, "It was never really about Fox, per se. It was about telling the truth, and the media telling the truth...I think that it's a big step forward in democracy if our system can send a signal that if media companies lie — whoever they are, on whatever channel it is — and they do so knowingly, they will be prepared to pay a very high price."
Poulos added that he was not surprised Fox took a long time to agree to a settlement, because "they published falsehoods about [Dominion], and it wasn't just once or twice...it was 20 statements made over two and a half months."
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"This was not the case of a media company pursuing the truth and making a mistake. They knew," Poulos added.
The interview was the first Poulos had given since Dominion agreed to settle its lawsuit against Fox for a mammoth $787.5 million, about half of the $1.6 billion Dominion had originally sued for. The lawsuit alleged that Fox News had spread ongoing lies about Dominion's voting machines and their use in disproven claims of voter fraud regarding the 2020 presidential election.
While Fox did release a statement saying it acknowledges "the court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false," Stephanopolous noted that the network did not really apologize for the falsehoods. Poulos replied, "It's not the way I wrote it...at the end of the day, the court system really is about accountability, we feel we got it."
Poulos also acknowledged, though, that the harassment of Dominion employees stemming from the lawsuit had been "devastating."
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