How Much Is Fox News Worth? Defamation Trial Is Underway

The $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News started this week, more than two years after the lawsuit was filed by Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion is suing the conservative news channel for its false claims that Dominion’s voting machines were rigged during the 2020 presidential election that Donald Trump lost.

Dominion may have a leg up in court this week. In March, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis denied a Fox News request to have the case dismissed. Judge Davis ruled that evidence in the case “demonstrates that [it] is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.”

The judge’s ruling means that the jury in the case won’t be debating whether Fox News made false statements but rather if the false statements were made with malice to purposely harm Dominion.

If Dominion wins its case against Fox News, the $1.6 billion reward wouldn't significantly dent the channel's overall net worth. According to Macrotrends, Fox News has a net worth of $16.44 billion as of April 17, 2023.

Fox News is a cable channel part of the media empire controlled by Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch has a net worth of $7.69 billion.

Dominion’s lawsuit also takes aim at Murdoch and the possible role he played in Fox News’s reporting. In a deposition, Murdoch reportedly said he was aware that some Fox News commentators endorsed Trump’s false allegations that the election was stolen but didn’t step in to stop the claims, PBS News Hour reported in February.

While Fox News won’t take much of a financial hit if Dominion wins its defamation lawsuit, the news channel may change its ways regarding reporting on future elections. Fox News viewers may also see a change of guard on the news desk.

The outcome of the Dominion versus Fox News lawsuit could also impact another defamation lawsuit against the conservative news channel. Another voting systems company, Smartmatic, is suing Fox Corp for $2.7 billion over the channel’s perpetuation of Trump’s false accusations of a stolen election.

A victory for Dominion could open Pandora’s box of similar lawsuits against media outlets, Axios reports.

The impact on the media could be more significant if Fox News wins the defamation suit. Some analysts fear a Fox News win could signal a return to the era of yellow journalism, Axios reports. Yellow journalism was prevalent in the late 19th century, when some newspapers exaggerated and sensationalized new events to attract readers.

"In my opinion, [a Fox victory] would open our society up to a return to what used to be referred to as the yellow journalism of the late 19th century, like the Hearst newspapers that led to wars,” Catherine Ross, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, told Axios.