Yesterday, Fox News settled its defamation lawsuit brought forth by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, closing the door on a long-running series of hits for the network. Former network star Bill O’Reilly said the settlement is the cost of the network changing its approach.
In a statement posted to his website, O’Reilly noted that Fox News is still in a precarious legal position with the Smartmatic Company and could still be sued by shareholders to determine whether executives at the organization acted with enough malice to alter the share price of the company’s stock.
“This is what happens when money becomes more important than honest information. Since I left FNC, the template changed from ‘Fair and Balanced’ to ‘Tell the audience what it wants to hear’,” wrote O’Reilly. “And millions of Trump voters, to this day, want to believe the 2020 election was rigged.
“That opinion can certainly be presented if you provide a counter opinion – equal time. However, once the facts begin to overwhelm any point of view, a news agency has an obligation to say that.”
O’Reilly then noted that he examined claims surrounding the 2020 presidential election and found that “no federal court would accept” the allegations.
“When I stated that opinion to my audience, I lost more than one thousand premium members. So be it,” O’Reilly said. “I did my job. Money is not the motivating force in this operation.”
