This piece was originally published in The New York Times.

The settlement in the Fox News-Dominion Voting Systems case represents a staggering financial sum — likely the largest monetary payout ever in a defamation case against a major news outlet. In addition, the judge offered a sharp rebuke of Fox News in pretrial rulings for what he said were the wild, false claims it aired about Dominion and its voting machines after the 2020 election.

By the time the trial was set to begin on Tuesday, the only question remaining about whether Fox was liable was if it had broadcast those claims with “actual malice” — that is, whether it knew the statements were false when it made them, or acted with reckless disregard for their falsity.

Many people are understandably frustrated by the lack of a formal retraction, but critically for our legal system, the settlement underscores that the actual malice standard still works, in spite of recent arguments to weaken it. As illustrated by the Dominion litigation, potentially meritorious suits proceed through discovery to trial, while those that can’t sufficiently make a case for actual malice by the defendants typically get dismissed by a judge.

Read the full piece in The New York Times.