I have written this piece for Slate. It begins:

What does the Fox (News) say? Not enough to save American democracy. But we never should have expected that a private defamation suit could have cured this country’s ongoing election panic anyways.

Dominion Voting Systems had sued Fox for defamation after Fox hosts and guests lied about the supposed role of Dominion’s voting machines in the 2020 presidential election. (Specifically, they said that the company rigged the votes against Donald Trump and for Joe Biden.) Voting machine manipulation was one of many outlandish conspiracy theories—like those involving Italian space lasers or fake ballots coming in from China—that swirled across right wing cable television and social media as Donald Trump churned up the lies to try to overturn his loss.

By the time the Dominion defamation case got to trial, Fox had a weak hand. Embarrassing depositions, emails, and other material from inside Fox showed that those at the top of the company knew the claims of a stolen election were a huge lie unsupported by any real evidence. The trial judge had already ruled, before trial, that the evidence indisputably showed that claims of Dominion voting machines being rigged were false, and that Fox was not merely reporting on such claims. The only real issue (aside from which Fox entities were liable and how much damage Dominion suffered) was whether Fox made false statements with “actual malice.” That standard, imposed by the Supreme Court to protect journalists and others reporting on public officials and public figures, requires proof that the speaker made the statements knowing they were false or with reckless disregard as to their truth or falsity.

Ultimately, Dominion agreed to a whopping a $787.5 million settlement from Fox in its defamation suit just as opening arguments in the trial were about to begin. Those damages more than compensate for any loss of reputation suffered by Dominion. What the settlement did not come with was a requirement of an apology or any on-air recognition directed to Fox’s cocooned viewers. No statement by the conservative-turned-Trumpy network that it had been shoveling manure for Trump and others when it came to the 2020 election. The most that the public will get is this anodyne sentence in the middle of Fox’s one-paragraph statement: “We acknowledge the Court’s rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false.” The sentence came right before Fox, with unparalleled chutzpah, praised its own “continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”

Some who wanted more out of this case were sorely disappointed. Journalism professor and columnist Margaret Sullivan tweeted: “Dominion should have insisted on an apology, including prominently on air. They could have gotten it from F[o]x, which was feeling desperate (in my view). It would have been in the public interest.” Before the settlement, liberal Twitter was full of similar sentiments urging Dominion not to settle so that more embarrassing truths would have come out. How great it would have been, they argued, to get Fox leader Rupert Murdoch under oath on cross examination.

While Murdoch testimony may have been better than an episode of Succession, we should abandon the idea that a single trial full of embarrassing details would change beliefs about a stolen 2020 election. Even if Fox agreed to a two-minute on-air crow eating by Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson, it would not have moved the needle. In poll after poll, the base of the Republican Party continues to express belief in a stolen 2020 election, a message that was repeated not just by Fox but by Trump himself, on television, social media, and elsewhere. It is supported by a constellation of grifty people lying about the American election system for profit and political power. Indeed, when Fox was the first out of the box to call the 2020 election for Biden after their decision desk determined he was going to win in Arizona, Fox viewers did not suddenly accept Biden’s victory; they instead switched over to One America News Network or Newsmax to hear happier lies. It was that ratings pressure that caused Fox to amplify the false statements in the first place….

Defamation is just a limited tool to deal with this social problem. Most of the statements Trump made about the election being stolen could not even be subject to a defamation suit despite their falsity because they did not injure the reputation of anyone in particular. Falsely saying the election is “rigged” is an attack on the system as a whole, not on someone who is an identifiable plaintiff. Think of stolen election claims more like creating a “vibe” than stating a falsifiable fact.

Much more needs to be done to counter the Big Lie vibe. Among the most important things is campaigning and voting against the politicians who embrace such lies. Early studies show that election deniers who ran for office underperformed in the 2022 midterms. When enough Republicans learn that running on a stolen election platform is a recipe for losing, they will start giving up on those claims.

Social media companies have no obligation to amplify election lies on their platforms. Meta and Twitter are moving in the wrong direction in many ways, but at least Meta has taken the position that it may remove Trump again if he starts lying about election integrity in 2024.

Congress and the states also need to provide a lot more money so that election officials can run free and fair elections. Without enough funds, election officials are more apt to make mistakes, and in a poisonous atmosphere, those mistakes metastasize into new conspiracy theories.  And our leaders need to deal with ongoing threats of violence against election officials and poll workers, and to stop the exodus of talented election workers who just cannot take the abuse anymore….