Right-wing media giant Fox News is facing a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, a Denver-based manufacturer of voting machines, over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election and then-president Donald Trump’s bogus claims that the contest was “rigged” to ensure victory for Joe Biden.
In a 192-page court filing published on 16 February containing private messages from many of the network’s biggest stars, Dominion argues: “From the top down, Fox knew ‘the Dominion stuff’ was ‘total bs’.”
“Yet despite knowing the truth – or at minimum, recklessly disregarding that truth – Fox spread and endorsed these ‘outlandish voter fraud claims’ about Dominion even as it internally recognised the lies as ‘crazy’, ‘absurd’ and ‘shockingly reckless’,” the filing said.
Attorneys for Fox, however, have argued that Dominion has mischaracterised the record and “the facts by cherry-picking soundbites” and “omitting key context”, and has accused the company of seeking “staggering” figure in damages aimed at winning headlines, silencing protected speech and enriching its owner, Staple Street Capital Partners, and its investors.
“Dominion brought this lawsuit to punish the Fox News Network for reporting on one of the biggest stories of the day – allegations by the sitting president of the United States and his surrogates that the 2020 election was affected by fraud,” the company stated in a counterclaim.
“The very fact of those allegations was newsworthy.”
Fox attorneys argue that when voting technology companies denied the allegations made by Mr Trump and his surrogates, Fox News aired those denials, while some of its hosts offered protected opinion commentary about the allegations.
Fox has asserted that the “core” of the case is freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v Sullivan.”
The chair of the conservative media empire said that hosts including Mr Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro “endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election,” claims that the former president and his allies continue to amplify as he seeks re-election to office in 2024.
“I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” Mr Murdoch said in a sworn deposition, according to court documents.
The veteran mogul also allegedly provided Mr Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, with “confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with debate strategy (providing Mr Kushner a preview of Mr Biden’s ads before they were public),” according to a filing from Dominion.
– Alex Woodward
