Dominion Voting Systems’ decision to let Fox News off the hook for repeatedly lying about their voting machines on the air in exchange for $787.5 million is the largest known media settlement in American history, making the deal a major news story. And while Fox has “News” right in its name, Stephen Colbert was confused as to why he couldn’t find any information about the deal when he visited FoxNews.com. “This massive settlement was the No. 1 story on every single cable news network except one,” Colbert said on Wednesday night’s show.
Can you guess where this is going?
“When the settlement was reached, Fox News couldn’t even bring themselves to tell their viewers how much money they forked over to Dominion for lying,” Colbert explained. “The closest they came was a statement by Fox News host and taxidermied corpse of Howie Kurtz: Howie Kurtz.” Colbert then cut to a clip of Kurtz explaining—two hours after the settlement was reached and publicly announced—that he could confirm the amount of the settlement. “If only this Fox News anchor had some… source at Fox News,” suggested Colbert.
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Still, Kurtz made out better than Lou Dobbs, who is named as a defendant in voting software company Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox. “And we already know Fox is afraid of this one,” says Colbert. How? Because of Dobbs, who The Late Show host described as a “former Fox host and wax sculpture of William Shatner left next to an open flame.”
Just one day after Smartmatic filed its defamation suit against Fox News and named Dobbs, the network canceled Dobbs’ long-running show. “Which was a huge disappointment for his audience: a cage full of parakeets in the dayroom,” noted Colbert.
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