For its sins, Fox News has agreed to pay a staggering settlement of $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems, a company clearly defamed by the media company. Top talent at Fox repeatedly told the lie — a lie within the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen — that Dominion’s voting machines aided a conspiracy to take votes away from Donald Trump.

Despite the big check Fox will have to write, many of its critics are unhappy that there will be no trial, which would likely have required propagandists such as Tucker Carlson to be questioned under oath about the falsehoods they spread. Carlson and his colleagues weren’t even required to issue on-air apologies.

An apology might have been a balm for those of us who live in a fact-based universe, but it wouldn’t have changed anything for those caught up in the Fox News cult. News of the settlement will hardly even penetrate the thick fog surrounding those who are breathing in the conspiracies, xenophobia, transphobia and outright racism that Fox peddles.

That was clear from the internal communications among Fox anchors and executives that were revealed as part of the legal discovery process. A week after the election, in a text exchange between Carlson and his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, the producer noted that viewers were angry that Carlson hadn’t focused more on alleged election fraud. “It’s all our viewers care about now,” Pfeiffer wrote.

Research has borne out the perception that the Fox News audience doesn’t enjoy a sturdy grip on facts. In 2012, Fairleigh Dickinson University published a survey showing that “someone who watched only Fox News” could answer fewer questions correctly about domestic affairs “than if they had reported watching no media at all.”

According to The Washington Post, more than 40% of Republican voters get their information about government and politics primarily from local news and Fox.

This has a corrosive effect on a democratic system built on the belief that citizens will be well-informed. The falsehoods spewing from Fox News hosts affect not only views about whether elections are legitimate but also about the debt ceiling, immigration and public health.

The right-wing mediascape damages the public trust and further rends the civic fabric. Take the inexplicable shooting of Ralph Yarl, the Black adolescent who mistakenly rang the doorbell of 84-year-old Andrew Lester, a white retired aircraft mechanic. Lester claims fear provoked him to shoot Yarl twice through the storm door. Lester’s grandson, Klint Ludwig, told The New York Times that his grandfather spent considerable time in his living room chair watching conservative news shows at a high volume.

That is unlikely to change. Fox faces other lawsuits over its fearmongering and falsehoods, but it can simply write another big check. Its viewers are addicted, and Murdoch intends to keep pumping out the poison.

Cynthia Tucker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2007.

She can be reached at cynthia@cynthiatucker.com.