Fox settled its Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit for $787.5 million, but the network’s litigators submitted several clips from “The Simpsons” to be shown in court, had the case gone to trial.
Each of these scenes show Homer Simpson voting in a presidential election, as NBC reported:
— Season 20’s “Treehouse of Horror XIX” shows Homer attempting to cast a ballot for Barack Obama.
— The promotional short “Homer Votes 2012” shows him voting for Mitt Romney.
— The YouTube short “Homer Votes 2016” features Russian President Vladimir Putin disguising himself as an American voter and trying to convince Homer to vote for Trump.
— Season 32’s “Treehouse of Horror XXXI” finds Homer unsure whether to vote for Trump or Biden.
“The Simpsons” is often lauded as a clairvoyant cartoon able to predict certain cultural events, but it’s unclear why exactly Fox planned to use clips from the long-running series as trial exhibits in the Dominion case.
Dominion’s 2021 lawsuit originally demanded $1.6 billion from Fox for broadcasting hosts and guests making false claims about the electronic voting corporation and the 2020 presidential election. Fox’s pundits pushed the narrative that the election was stolen from Donald Trump.
Dominion and Fox both released statements ahead of the anticipated trial.
“In the coming weeks, we will prove Fox spread lies causing enormous damage to Dominion. We look forward to trial,” said a Dominion spokesperson.
A spokesperson for Fox said, “Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade in search of a financial windfall, but the real cost would be cherished First Amendment rights. While Dominion has pushed irrelevant and misleading information to generate headlines, Fox News remains steadfast in protecting the rights of a free press, given a verdict for Dominion and its private equity owners would have grave consequences for the entire journalism profession.”