Mediator Pressured Fox To Agree To Settle

Before pulling back from the brink of a trial, Fox News and Dominion Voting systems faced a stern deadline — not from an impatient judge or jury, but from a man on a Danube River cruise with his wife half a world away, David Bauder reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: Jerry Roscoe was the mediator hired to push the two sides toward a $787.5-million settlement that brought a stunning end to the most-watched media libel case in decades.

A mediator hired pushed the two sides toward a $787.5-million settlement that brought a stunning end to the most-watched media libel case in decades, one that sought to put a price on lies told about the 2020 presidential election on conservative America’s most popular news outlet.

“It’s a deadline that I always impose because I know that once a jury is empaneled and opening statements are made, then one or other of the parties will dig into their positions,” Jerry Roscoe, of the Washington-based JAMS mediation service, said Wednesday.

“It makes negotiations much more difficult.”

Roscoe was vacationing with his wife on a Danube River cruise when he was picked to mediate and push the parties to a deal. Fox had everything to lose in this case and was loath to let its news anchors admit they lied on the air.

Roscoe said that being the case, he pushed them to cut a deal, or Fox would lose more. The deal was sealed at 10 p.m. Danube River time, with Roscoe’s wife on the telephone, “perhaps looking for a new husband,” he joked.

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