Peter Maas’s latest article for The Intercept is simultaneously smug and despairing, but it’s quite accurate in its analysis of the $787.5 million settlement between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. The short version is that anyone who was hoping that a company like Dominion, controlled by a private equity firm, was going to be the vehicle to save American democracy was probably huffing paint: “One terrible limb of American capitalism was always unlikely to save us from another terrible limb.”

But hope and confidence are not the same things. Hoping for something unlikely isn’t a sign of stupidity unless your plan relies on it. Once the trial had selected a jury, it was reasonable to expect that opening statements might follow. Alas, it was not to be. So it goes.

Dominion won big and their discovery process provided a major public service along the way. But a trial would have been so much better. We needed to see Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, along with Fox News talent like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, take the stand and admit that the Big Lie is a big lie. Even if the trial wasn’t televised, the transcripts would have been gold. In the end, we didn’t even get an on-air apology.

But try to look on the bright side. By settling, Fox News has to pony up almost a billion dollars, and it might have taken years for that to happen through a trial and subsequent appeals, if it happened at all. The number isn’t crippling but it’s substantial, and it’s giving their parent company a headache.

Fox Corp shareholders are demanding company records that may show whether directors and executives properly oversaw Fox News’ coverage of former President Donald Trump’s election-rigging claims, sources told Reuters, in what could be a prelude to lawsuits seeking to make directors liable for costs.

Accountability could come from shareholders demanding new management. This is more realistic because, as the Washington Post reports, the process is about to repeat itself.

The media company also faces a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by another voting technology company, Smartmatic, that alleges Fox broadcast lies that “decimated” its business.

In a nearly 300-page complaint filed in New York State Supreme Court in February 2021, Smartmatic alleges that Fox News knowingly made “over 100 false statements and implications” about the company, amplifying false information from former president Donald Trump and his allies that Smartmatic played a role in his election loss. In February, a New York appeals court ruled that the case was allowed to proceed.

If Dominion seemed ambitious seeking $1.6 billion, Smartmatic is even more so asking for $2.7 billion. Having seen Fox News shell out $787.5 million to make Dominion’s case go away, Smartmatic’s lawyers will definitely be driving a hard bargain. And I think Fox News will inclined to avoid repeating some mistakes, like letting severely damaging information come out in the discovery process. If you’re a Fox Corp. shareholder, the pain is not over.

There’s really four things we should want to see from these lawsuits. First is that people pay a price for deceiving the American people. Second is that as many of the deceived as possible realize what happened. Third is that Fox News does things at least a little more responsibly in the future. Fourth is that with respect to the 2024 presidential election, Fox News does not undermine acceptance of the legitimacy of the outcome.

The settlement started the process. A financial price has been paid and some deterrence has been established. We still need to see more accountability because, so far, only the wrong people at Fox News have lost their jobs. Perhaps the shareholders will have something to say about that, and they could also influence how Fox News responds the next time a Republican candidate outright lies about the integrity of an election.

There’s more accountability coming too, in the Special Counsel’s case on January 6, and the Fulton County, Georgia case on fake electors.

The settlement was disappointing but it was a big step in the right direction. I’m despairing about a lot of things, but this isn’t one of them.