Call it a legal earthquake. Call it one of the most expensive “oops” in media history. But whatever you call it, Fox News just coughed up $787.5 million to settle a defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems—and they did it without so much as a real apology.

That number isn’t just jaw-dropping. It’s record-shattering, reputation-mangling, yacht-selling, “we need to sell the office furniture” levels of expensive. And all because a handful of Fox hosts—most notably Sean Hannity—decided to sell their viewers the Big Lie about the 2020 election. Spoiler: they didn’t even believe it themselves.

The lawsuit exposed a devastating truth about the network: while their primetime stars peddled wild conspiracy theories on-air, behind the scenes they were texting and emailing each other about how ridiculous those same claims were. Hannity, under oath, admitted he never believed a word of it. That’s right—the guy who told millions of Americans that the election was stolen… knew it wasn’t. He just said it anyway.

Because lies, it turns out, are good for ratings.

But lies also have consequences. And this time, those consequences came with a nine-figure price tag. Dominion didn’t even have to take the case to trial—Fox folded. Fast. Why? Because discovery had already exposed them. Emails, depositions, transcripts—receipts were everywhere. And they were ugly.

You’d think this would trigger a reckoning at the network. A soul-searching moment. A genuine apology. A public commitment to real journalism.

Nope.

Instead, they issued a vague statement about valuing truth, wrote the check, and tossed Tucker Carlson out the back door as a distraction. Sean Hannity? Still on air. Still doing his schtick. Still cashing his multi-million dollar paycheck like none of this ever happened.

It’s almost impressive—the audacity.

Make no mistake: this was not a small mistake or a rogue error. This was a deliberate, coordinated campaign to mislead viewers about the integrity of the U.S. election system. The cost? Nearly a billion dollars in a single settlement—and that’s just one lawsuit.

Fox still faces a $2.7 billion defamation suit from another voting tech company, Smartmatic. That’s more than three times what Dominion got. So if you thought this was the end, think again. The legal firing squad is just getting warmed up.

And yet, despite all this, the Fox outrage machine keeps humming along like it’s just another Tuesday. Why? Because the network’s business model doesn’t rely on truth. It thrives on anger. On paranoia. On creating an alternate reality where accountability is for “the other side.”

In any normal profession, if you got caught pushing a lie that cost your employer nearly a billion dollars, you’d be out of a job. Hannity? He’s still there. Still shouting. Still smirking. Because at Fox News, the grift doesn’t stop—it evolves.

The kicker? Hannity didn’t pay a cent of that settlement himself. All that money came from Fox Corporation. Translation: shareholders, advertisers, and ultimately you—the viewer—footed the bill. And Fox didn’t even say sorry.

So what’s next? More lawsuits. More headlines. More bluster from hosts who know better but say worse. And probably, eventually, more settlements.

Unless the courts stop them—and unless viewers start demanding better—Fox will keep doing what it does best: monetize misinformation.

Because in their world, truth is optional. Accountability is nonexistent. And the only thing that really matters is keeping the outrage dial cranked to 11.

But hey, if things get really dire, maybe Hannity can pitch a new monthly “Defamation Defense Fee.” Call it a Freedom Tax. Wouldn’t put it past him.