The billion-dollar price of lies.
Major media outlets and digital platforms have spread false or misleading information that caused significant, measurable harm - from fueling genocide to contributing to the 2008 financial crisis. Legal settlements now exceed $3 billion and consequences include deaths, violence, and economic devastation.
Fox News settlement - largest media defamation ever
ABC "pink slime" settlement
Smartmatic seeking from Fox
Catastrophic journalism failures.
Iraq War WMD Coverage
The New York Times' pre-Iraq War reporting based on dubious sources became central to the case for invasion. A war began that killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
Fabrication Scandals
Stephen Glass invented at least 27 of 41 articles for The New Republic. Jayson Blair plagiarized and fabricated material in dozens of NY Times stories, including quotes from grieving military families.
Richard Jewell Case
After the 1996 Olympic bombing, media portrayed the security guard as a failed cop seeking hero status. He endured 88 days of scrutiny before the FBI cleared him. The real bomber wasn't caught until 2003.
When platforms became weapons.
Myanmar Genocide
The UN concluded Facebook played a "determining" role in violence that killed thousands and displaced 700,000 Rohingya. Despite warnings since 2012, Facebook had just one Burmese-speaking moderator for 1.2 million users.
WhatsApp Lynchings
False messages about child kidnappers spread virally and killed over 25 people in India during 2017-2018. Mohammed Azam, a software engineer, was beaten to death after being misidentified in a viral video.
TikTok Blackout Challenge
Dangerous challenges have killed at least 20 children. Courts ruled the platform can be held liable for algorithm-driven content promotion.
Instagram Teen Harm
Frances Haugen's whistleblower revelations exposed how Facebook's own research showed Instagram worsened body image for 32% of teen girls and increased suicidal thoughts in 13.5% of UK teen users.
A body count in the thousands.
COVID Lab Leak Coverage
Major outlets initially dismissed the lab leak theory as a "conspiracy theory." The Washington Post called Senator Tom Cotton's questions "already debunked" before later acknowledging this was a "dumb article."
MMR-Autism Vaccine Link
Promoted through fraudulent research and amplified by media giving "balanced" coverage to anti-vaccine celebrities, this sparked measles outbreaks that ended elimination status in multiple regions. The BMJ called it "perhaps the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years."
Opioid Crisis Coverage
Purdue Pharma placed "friendly experts" in major outlets. Coverage delayed regulatory response while nearly 400,000 Americans died from overdoses between 1999-2017, and Purdue made $35 billion from OxyContin sales.
Trillion-dollar blind spots.
2008 Financial Crisis
Media failed to connect housing bubble to Wall Street. The NYT called Lehman Brothers CEO a "survivor" with "sound risk management" one year before collapse. Nine million Americans lost homes.
Theranos
Years of fawning coverage portrayed Elizabeth Holmes as the "female Steve Jobs." Forbes valued her at $4.5 billion based on non-functional technology. Investors lost over $700 million.
FTX Collapse
Sam Bankman-Fried was hailed as the "JP Morgan of this generation" by CNBC while his FTX exchange was collapsing, costing customers $8 billion. Multiple outlets had accepted grants from his foundations.
The era of accountability begins.
The recent wave of massive settlements suggests a turning point. Courts are establishing that spreading known falsehoods carries real consequences. Whistleblowers are exposing how platforms knowingly cause harm. Yet in an attention economy where outrage drives engagement and speed trumps accuracy, the incentives still favor sensationalism over truth.