Newsmax, the right-wing cable news outlet that prides itself on being a safe space for MAGA loyalists, has agreed to pay a whopping $67 million to settle a libel lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion alleged that Newsmax knowingly posted and broadcast falsehoods about the company rigging the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.
This was not just a case of sloppy reporting and commentary, or a misunderstanding in the heat of a chaotic news cycle. Dominion’s lawsuit laid it out in no uncertain terms: Newsmax aired conspiracy theories that weren’t just wrong — they were ludicrous. We are talking about 18 separate statements made on television and social media, including wild claims that Dominion’s software switched votes from President Trump to former President Joe Biden, that the company had shady ties to Venezuela and that it had paid kickbacks to corrupt officials.
This wasn’t journalism. This was a fantasy novel masquerading as news. And the price tag for that fiction is $67 million.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve been down this road before. In April 2023, Fox News cut a check to Dominion for $787.5 million to make its own defamation lawsuit disappear. That case involved Fox amplifying similar conspiracy theories, pushing nonsense that its journalists and editors knew — or should have known — didn’t pass the smell test, all because the network was terrified of losing viewers to the more feverish corners of right-wing media.
And it gets better — or worse, depending on your view. Last year, Newsmax also quietly settled a related case brought by Smartmatic, another voting tech company, for $40 million. Fox News is still facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic. That one is heading for trial in Manhattan, unless the two sides come to a settlement first.
These aren’t nuisance suits filed by ambulance chasers hoping for a quick payday. These are serious allegations backed by damning evidence. What Fox and Newsmax did wasn’t just unethical — it was corrosive. It eroded trust in democracy and the legitimacy of journalism. It deepened political division and helped fuel a conspiracy theory that ultimately led to violence on Jan. 6, 2021.
So why did they do it? Because it’s good for business. The business model at partisan cable networks — left or right — isn’t built so much on informing the public but on telling the audience what it wants to hear.
In the weeks after the 2020 election, what the conservative audience wanted to hear was that Trump had been robbed. That the system was rigged. That the deep state, the Democrats and, yes, the voting machine companies had all conspired to take their hero down.
Fox and Newsmax didn’t create this delusion — but they sure as hell monetized it.
And when journalism devolves into partisan cheerleading, it’s no surprise when journalists (a term I use loosely) sitting behind anchor desks become carnival barkers, and facts take a back seat to fantasy.
The real tragedy is that millions of Americans tuned in, nodded along and believed every word. Because when you’ve been trained to distrust every institution except the television pundits you worship, even the most absurd claim starts to feel like gospel.
Maybe it’s a little schadenfreude on my part, but I won’t apologize for feeling a touch of satisfaction in seeing these media giants write giant checks for their irresponsibility. They lied. They got caught. And now they’re paying for it.
Too bad the viewers who bought the lies, repeated them at dinner tables and blasted them across social media aren’t held to account. In a just world, they would share some of the blame. Because they’re not just innocent bystanders in this train wreck — they’re the unindicted co-conspirators.
The networks sold the con. But it was the audience that bought it — eagerly, angrily and pretty much without question.
And here we are, five years later, still trying to clean up the mess.
Bernard Goldberg is an Emmy and an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award-winning writer and journalist. He is the author of five books and publishes exclusive weekly columns, audio commentaries and Q&As on his Substack page. Follow him @BernardGoldberg.
