Jump to content

Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 2a00:23ee:19e0:ad49:cc46:feff:fef0:7fba (talk) at 14:58, 5 April 2023 (Category). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

In March 2021, Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News Network, alleging that several of its program hosts and guests made false allegations that Dominion's voting machines had been rigged to steal the 2020 United States presidential election from then-president Donald Trump. Fox News responded that it was reporting news of what individuals were saying and was thus protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. During pre-trial discovery, Dominion publicly released Fox News internal communications indicating prominent hosts and top executives were aware the network was reporting falsehoods but continued doing so.

The Delaware Superior Court judge hearing the complaint ruled in a March 2023 summary judgment that none of the statements Fox News made about Dominion were true and ordered the case to trial to determine if the network had acted with actual malice. Jury selection for the trial was scheduled to begin on April 13, 2023, with several prominent Fox News personalities and senior executives expected to testify.

Background

After Trump's defeat in the 2020 presidential election, Fox News host Jeanine Pirro promoted baseless allegations on her program that Dominion and its competitor Smartmatic had conspired to rig the election against Trump. Hosts Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo also promoted the allegations on their programs on sister network Fox Business.[1] In December 2020, Smartmatic sent a letter to Fox News demanding retractions and threatening legal action, specifying that retractions "must be published on multiple occasions" so as to "match the attention and audience targeted with the original defamatory publications."[2] Days later, each of the three programs aired the same three-minute video segment consisting of an interview with an election technology expert who refuted the allegations promoted by the hosts, responding to questions from an unseen and unidentified man. None of the three hosts personally issued retractions. Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against the network, the three hosts, Powell and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in February 2021.[3] In an April 2021 court brief seeking dismissal of the suit, Fox attorney Paul Clement argued that the network was simply "reporting allegations made by a sitting President and his lawyers."[4] The Smartmatic suit remains pending as of April 2023.

In December 2020, Dominion sent a similar letter demanding retractions to Trump attorney Sidney Powell,[5][6][7] who had promoted the allegations on Fox programs.[8][9][10] On March 26, 2021, Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, alleging that Fox and some of its pundits spread conspiracy theories about Dominion, and allowed guests to make false statements about the company.[11] On May 18, 2021, Fox News filed a motion to dismiss the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, asserting a First Amendment right "to inform the public about newsworthy allegations of paramount public concern."[12] The motion to dismiss was denied on December 16, 2021, by a Delaware Superior Court judge.[13] In addition to Bartiromo, Dobbs, and Pirro, the suit also names primetime hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity.[14]

In June 2022, a Delaware Superior Court judge again declined to dismiss the Dominion suit against Fox News, and also allowed Dominion to sue the network's corporate parent, Fox Corporation. The judge ruled that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch may have acted with actual malice because there was a reasonable inference they "either knew Dominion had not manipulated the election or at least recklessly disregarded the truth when they allegedly caused Fox News to propagate its claims about Dominion." He noted a report that Rupert Murdoch spoke with Trump a few days after the election and informed him that he had lost.[15]

The New York Times reported in December 2022 that Dominion had acquired communications between Fox News executives and hosts, and between a Fox Corporation employee and the Trump White House, showing they knew that what the network was reporting was untrue. Dominion attorneys said hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, and Fox executives, attested to this in sworn depositions. In November 2020, Hannity hosted Sidney Powell, who asserted Dominion machines had been rigged, but said in his deposition, "I did not believe it for one second."[16] A February 2023 Dominion court filing showed Fox News primetime hosts messaging each other to insult and mock Trump advisers, indicating the hosts knew the allegations made by Powell and Giuliani were false. Rupert Murdoch messaged that Trump's voter fraud claims were "really crazy stuff," telling Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott that it was "terrible stuff damaging everybody, I fear." As a January 2021 Georgia runoff election approached that would determine party control of the U.S. Senate, Murdoch told Scott, "Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can."[17][18][19][20]

In early 2023, Rupert Murdoch acknowledged in a deposition that some Fox News personalities were endorsing election fraud claims they knew were false.[21][22]

On March 31, 2023, Delaware Superior Court judge Eric Davis ruled in a summary judgment that it "is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true" and ordered the case to trial on April 17 to determine if the network had acted with actual malice.[23]

References

  1. ^ "Fox News and three hosts sued for $2.7 billion by voting machine company over election-fraud claims". Associated Press. February 4, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2022 – via USA Today.
  2. ^ "Legal Notice and Retraction Demand from Smartmatic USA Corp to Fox News" (PDF). Mediaite. December 10, 2020. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-12-14. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  3. ^ Darcy, Oliver (February 4, 2021). "Voting technology company Smartmatic files $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell over 'disinformation campaign'". CNN. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  4. ^ "Fox News Lawyers Renew Bid to Get Smartmatic's Billion-Dollar Case Thrown Out of Court: The Real 'Threat' to Democracy Is This Lawsuit". April 26, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  5. ^ "Days After Smartmatic's Legal Threat, Dominion Voting Systems Follows Suit with Demand Letter to Sidney Powell". December 17, 2020.
  6. ^ "Lou Dobbs Airs Stunning Fact-Check of His Own Election Claims". December 18, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  7. ^ "Lou Dobbs debunks his own claims of election fraud—after a legal demand from Smartmatic". The Washington Post. December 19, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  8. ^ "Fox News fact-checks Smartmatic voting machine fraud claim in staged video". The Guardian. December 20, 2020. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  9. ^ "Jeanine Pirro's Show Runs Same Fact-Check as Lou Dobbs—At End of Show With Guest Host". December 20, 2020.
  10. ^ "Maria Bartiromo Airs Fact-Check, Adds 'We Will Keep Investigating'". December 20, 2020.
  11. ^ Izadi, Elahe (March 26, 2021). "Fox News sued by Dominion Voting for $1.6 billion over election fraud claims". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 26, 2021.
  12. ^ Folkenflik, David; Romo, Vanessa (May 18, 2021). "Fox News Moves To Have Dominion Voting Systems Lawsuit Dismissed". NPR. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
  13. ^ Keller, Aaron (December 16, 2021). "'The Court Can Infer That Fox Intended to Avoid the Truth': Judge Refuses to Dismiss Dominion Lawsuit Against Fox News Over 2020 Election Coverage". Law and Crime. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  14. ^ Larson, Erik (December 16, 2021). "Dominion Defamation Suit Against Fox Can Move Forward". Bloomberg News. Retrieved February 23, 2022.
  15. ^ Erik Larson; Mike Leonard (June 21, 2022). "Fox News Parent Has to Face Defamation Suit Over Vote-Rigging Claims". Bloomberg News.
  16. ^ Peters, Jeremy W. (December 21, 2022). "In Testimony, Hannity and Other Fox Employees Said They Doubted Trump's Fraud Claims". The New York TImes.
  17. ^ Jeremy W. Peters; Katie Robertson (February 16, 2023). "Fox Stars Privately Expressed Disbelief About Election Fraud Claims. 'Crazy Stuff.'". The New York Times.
  18. ^ Olivia Rubin; Lucien Bruggeman (February 16, 2023). "Fox News hosts called 2020 election fraud 'total BS' in private, new Dominion court filing says". ABC News.
  19. ^ Klasfeld, Adam (February 16, 2023). "'Really crazy stuff': Rupert Murdoch trashed Rudy Giuliani's election theories, unsealed filing in Fox News suit reveals". Law&Crime.
  20. ^ "Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network court filing" (PDF). February 16, 2023.
  21. ^ Matza, Max (2023-02-28). "Rupert Murdoch says Fox News hosts endorsed false election fraud claims". BBC News. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  22. ^ Peters, Jeremy W; Robertson, Katie (2023-02-27). "Murdoch Acknowledges Fox News Hosts Endorsed Election Fraud Falsehoods". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
  23. ^ Jeremy W. Peters; Katie Robertson (March 31, 2023). "Fox News Suffers Major Setback in Its Defamation Case". The New York Times.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Dominion_Voting_Systems_v._Fox_News_Network&oldid=1148334210"