Last year, Newsmax settled a defamation lawsuit filed against it by election-tech company Smartmatic for an amount revealed months later to be $40 million — a bit of inconvenient timing given that Newsmax was prepping for its IPO at the time. Meanwhile, Newsmax was also dealing with another defamation suit by another election-tech company, Dominion, over Newsmax’s shenanigans after the 2020 election. As the lawsuit wound its way through the court system, Newsmax took shots at Dominion while also playing damage control after Fox News paid Dominion $787 million to settle similar claims, insisting that its Dominion lawsuit is “materially different” from that of Fox News.
Earlier this year, however, a judge ruled (ironically, a week after Newsmax officially went public) that Newsmax spread false and defamatory claims against Dominion. Things went quiet on the lawsuit front for a while, even though it was originally set to go to trial a few weeks later — a likely sign that settlement negotiations were underway.
And that’s what eventually happened. Newsmax announced in an Aug. 18 article:
Newsmax Media, Inc. announced today it has reached a settlement agreement with Dominion Voting Systems, concluding a defamation lawsuit that Dominion filed in Delaware Superior Court in 2021.
In a filing submitted Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Newsmax disclosed the parties have mutually agreed to resolve the litigation for a total payment of $67 million. The settlement amount will be paid out in installments over three fiscal years which the company expects to fund through revenues.
From there, Newsmax proved to be decidedly un-remorseful, refusing to apologize for its lies and whining that the judge who found its statements to be false and defamatory was biased against it:
From the outset, Newsmax has always maintained its reporting was not defamatory and its coverage was consistent with accepted journalistic standards.
“Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020,” the company said in its statement. “We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism.”
Despite its confidence in its reporting, Newsmax determined the Delaware court with Judge Eric Davis presiding would not provide a fair trial wherein the company could present standard libel defenses to a jury.
Davis also presided over the case of Dominion v. Fox News where he was harshly criticized by then Fox’s chief legal officer for his actions and rulings.
“From the very beginning, Judge Davis ruled in ways that strongly favored the plaintiffs and limited Newsmax’s ability to defend itself,” Newsmax stated.
[…]The pattern of judicial rulings that consistently denied Newsmax due process left the company to believe it would not receive a fair trial. Faced with these rulings and other constraints, Newsmax chose to settle the case.
“The Delaware court under Judge Davis effectively enforced a confiscation of our property because our reporting was not always sympathetic to Joe Biden,” Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy said.
“The actions taken against Newsmax, and earlier against Fox News, represent a direct attack on free speech and a free press,” he said.
Or, you know, Newsmax was actually guilty of the allegations against it — as we’ve noted, Newsmax presented its Dominion-bashing claims uncritically, and without noting that the claims were false, until Dominion sent it a cease-and-desist letter — and chose to whine about justice being served because an apology was not part of the settlement terms. Also, we don’t recall that spreading lies are a part of “free speech.”
The article then huffed that it’s glad Newsmax is no longer has its corporate domicile in Delaware:
Newsmax likely could not have been sued in Delaware had it not been incorporated there at the time Dominion Voting Systems filed its lawsuit. Newsmax encourages every business incorporated in Delaware to reconsider and exit the state, as it did so to Florida. Businesses should re-domicile in jurisdictions that still believe in the rule of law and remain committed to protecting constitutional freedoms for all Americans.
Unmentioned by Newsmax: Dominion exercised its constitutional freedom not to be lied about by suing Newsmax for spreading lies.
An Aug. 19 article touted Newsmax’s quarterly earnings while spinning the lawsuit settlement:
“We are pleased to have reached a resolution with Dominion,” commented Ruddy. “This settlement enables us to move forward from the litigation and remain focused on delivering the trusted news and analysis our viewers rely on every day.”
The resolution of the Dominion suit, which ends all litigation the Company faced relating to the 2020 election, is expected to significantly reduce Newsmax’s legal expenses for the foreseeable future.
The fact that Newsmax was sued by Dominion would seem to prove that its news and analysis shouldn’t be “trusted.” the same day, Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy appeared on his own network to spin the settlement some more:
The Newsmax CEO also noted that payments for the settlement will be made over three years, and the company made no admission of guilt nor offered any retraction for its reporting.
“We have no retraction,” Ruddy said in an interview Monday on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.” “We give no apology. It just puts the matter behind us, because the cost of the legal continuance of this case would be onerous.”
[…]“We played it by the book,” he said. “We gave both sides. We sought out the opinion of Dominion many times. At the end of the day, we had no problem with Dominion. Newsmax, as a network, accused Dominion of nothing.”
Ruddy went on to claim without evidence that the judge was an “activist Democrat” and whined that “the court blocked Newsmax from presenting evidence that would have shown the network’s reporting was consistent with journalistic standards and was not an effort to defame Dominion.” Then he served up even more spin:
Ruddy also underlined Newsmax’s editorial stance on the 2020 election, saying that while the network accepted the official outcome, irregularities involving mail-in COVID ballots gave the win to Biden.
The settlement concludes all litigation brought against the company as a result of its coverage of the 2020 election.
The stock market appeared to react positively to the news of the settlement with Newsmax (NMAX) shares rising on the New York Stock Exchange by 15% by the end of the day Monday.
Of course. It’s all about the stock price.