Stephen Colbert shares frustration at Fox-Dominion settlement: ‘Damn it! I want my trial!’

‘I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames!’ late-night host joked

Stephen Colbert could barely contain his laughter as he discussed the news that Fox News has settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion for $787.5m (£633m).

On Tuesday (18 April), the news corporation averted one of the biggest defamation trials in recent US history by settling a lawsuit with voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems.

Dominion had accused the network of spreading false statements about its business in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, with the trial due to begin on Tuesday.

Fox settled for roughly half of Dominion’s original demand of $1.6bn (£1.3bn), with the total still amounting to the largest-ever settlement in a libel case in US history.

Just hours later, Colbert and his fellow US late night hosts had plenty to talk about as they discussed the settlement.

Hosting The Late Show on Tuesday (18 April) night, Colbert complained that the trial not going ahead meant missing out on “six weeks of delicious content”.

“Damnit! I want my trial! I want it!” he shouted. “I wanted to see Rupert Murdoch put his hand on the Bible and burst into flames.

“I guess it’s satisfying for Dominion that Rup-y had to fork over a pile of cash, but that does nothing for our democracy.”

He added: “What we need is Fox News personalities to look straight into the camera, admit that they lied, over and over again about the 2020 election and then hurl themselves into Mount Doom.”

The presenter then showed a clip of CNN host Jake Tapper struggling to keep a straight face as he read out Fox’s statement, which framed the settlement as a sign of “Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards”.

After Tapper apologised for not being able to stop laughing, Colbert responded: “Oh, don’t apologise Jake. It’s hilarious.”

On Jimmy Kimmel Live, host Kimmel said that “no company in America had a worse day than Fox News today”.

He also echoed Cobert’s sentiment, adding: “We naively thought this was about making Fox News take responsibility for destroying their reputation because that’s what they told us it was about.

“But no, they took the money instead, which means the liars who knowingly mislead their oatmeal-brained viewers and seriously damaged our democracy don’t have to say anything about it at all… while Dominion and their lawyers go shopping for yachts, I guess.”