Fox News is in big trouble, this time for its involvement in spreading lies about voter fraud following the 2020 Presidential Election.
Dominion Voting Systems, the tech company that’s sued everyone from former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to ultra-conservative news networks like OAN and Newsmax, has now set its sights on Fox News. Like its fellow networks, Fox News dedicated substantial airtime to promoting ridiculous conspiracy theories about the company’s voting technology, theories that included dead Venezuelan presidents and secret government plots. The problem? There might be evidence to suggest that Fox knew all of those voter fraud claims were false and they still pushed that narrative out to their audience. In fact, there’s enough probable cause that a judge on Delaware’s Superior Court just gave the suit a green light, which means Fox News czar Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, should be worried.
According to a new report, Judge Eric David determined that the Murdochs either “knew outright that Dominion had not manipulated the election or recklessly disregarded the truth.” Currently, Dominion is suing Fox for $1.6 billion. They’re also seeking $1.6 billion in damages from both OAN and Newsmax. And they have a fairly good shot at getting that money according to Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, a constitutional law professor at Florida’s Stetson University. Spelliscy told Huffpost that Fox News should’ve never given Trump’s “big lie” the “megaphone” that it did, especially after Dominion asked the network to stop spreading disinformation.
The recent ruling also means that communications between the Trump White House, Fox News personalities, and the Murdochs can now be used as evidence in the case.
“I think once you start to pull the discovery material, what you’re going to find is there was a lot of communication between the Trump people both internally and externally about pushing very specific lies and narratives,” Media Matters for America chief executive Angelo Carusone told The Guardian.
(Via Huffpost & The Guardian)