Following other lawsuits, Dominion sues Fox News for defamation in response to the networks 2020 election coverage.
Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, alleging that the network purposefully aired false claims about the the company’s role in the 2020 presidential election in order to boost ratings.
In the suit, filed in a Delaware court, Dominion argued that the Fox and several of its on-air personalities elevated conspiracy theories about the voting company rigging the 2020 election and allowed falsehoods by their guests to go unchecked, including a wild claim that the company’s machines were manufactured in “Venezuela to rig elections for the dictator Hugo Chávez” and that Dominion’s algorithm manipulated votes so that then-President Trump would lose.
“Fox engaged in this knowing and reckless propagation of these enormous falsehoods in order to profit off these lies,” reads the lawsuit. “Fox wanted to continue to protect its broadcast ratings, catering to an audience deeply loyal to President Trump.”
In response to the lawsuit, Fox News Media said in a statement that the company “is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”
Dominion earlier filed election-related defamation lawsuits against Trump affiliated attorneys Sydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, as well as MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell.
The lawsuit cites Fox’s own reporting in advance of Election Day that the mail-in vote would heavily favor Joe Biden, and that it was likely that the result wouldn’t be known for days.
But Dominion lawyers argue that Fox News ratings went into “in a freefall” in the days after the election and that the network was losing Trump loyalists to more right-wing channels such as Newsmax.
Around the same time, Powell and Giuliani appeared on several conservative and right-wing media outlets, where they repeated Trump’s false claim that the election had been stolen from him. Hosts such as Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs not only had Powell and Giuliani on as guests, but “endorsed and repeated” their lies.
Dominion repeatedly notified the network that it had aired falsehoods, including sending several “setting the record straight” emails to Fox News reporters and producers, but was ignored, the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit states that, as a result of Fox’s conduct, Dominion employees have been stalked and harassed and the company suffered reputational damage that has diminished its value.
Last month, another election technology company, Smartmatic, filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News and several of its most prominent commentators over what its chief executive called a “disinformation campaign” about the presidential election.
The Smartmatic lawsuit also named several Fox hosts, including Bartiromo, Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro.
Read if for yourself here:
dominion sues fox news
Finger lickin good. Wonder if Fox’ll be able to actually pull off claiming that Dominion is a public figure so malice has to be established?Report
I’m waiting for them to argue that they shouldn’t be believed by reasonable people.Report
Hey, you want to know who should actually be canceled, and deplatformed?
The people who have argued, in court, that what they saying is obviously lies for entertainment purposes and is not expected to be true.
Fox News, very recently, argued in court that Tucker Carlson (Or any of their opinion people) doesn’t have to any obligation to actually research before commenting on things, specifically before accusing people of felonies.
Note this isn’t the same thing as the false claim they’ve argued their _news_ stories don’t have to be truthful…they’ve been very clear they are just talking about their opinion shows, and their opinion shows are just for entertainment. But they’ve argued that repeatedly.
The thing is: Various media platforms have decided to crack down sources of false information. And…they don’t do that story by story, they flag entire domains, entire sources of content, as disreputable.
Which makes me question why _any_ part of Fox News is treated as news by social media sites. People aren’t normally allowed to operate a place that produces lying political slander that is just for entertainment…_and_ news that is supposed to be treated seriously.
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Likewise, Tucker Carlson. Twitter, during the election, put little notifications under tweets about the election, warning people about dubious info, telling them where to good info.
I don’t see why that shouldn’t be done to Tucker Carlson. His Twitter describes himself as working for Fox News, and I think Twitter should, below each tweet, something that makes it clear he works for Fox News in an _opinion_ capacity, he is not any sort of journalist.
And according to his court’s actual words, in position put forward by his employer’s own lawyer: The “‘general tenor’ of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not ‘stating actual facts’ about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary.’
Put that on every Tweet by him: This opinion host is not a journalist, and has been found by a US District court to be ‘not stating actual facts’ about the topics he discussions and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary’.Report
“People aren’t normally allowed to operate a place that produces lying political slander that is just for entertainment…”
without political slander for entertainment, wither the 23 hours of cable news that aren’t story recaps?
i admit i like the idea of a world where twitter goes about labeling columnists in one direction and journalists in another, but that’s only because the chaos that would ensue would be hilarious. dark chuckles for dark times, friend.Report
For some reason, my two attempts to post about the legal talent on Dominion’s side seem to have been eaten.Report
I went back to yesterday noon in spam and trash and didn’t see anything. Do you have a time window I should pay close attention to?Report