Though Fox News was the first network to make the tipping-point call that Joe Biden won Arizona on election night 2020, hosts of the network’s opinion shows subsequently promoted a number of former President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations that the election had been rigged against him.
Sean Hannity, for instance, incorrectly asserted that “nobody can testify to the legitimacy” of the vote tally in Pennsylvania, called for an election “do-over,” and proposed that Republican legislators in the state overturn the results. Hosts also uncritically elevated voices, including former Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who falsely identified two companies that provide voting software and hardware as the culprits behind Trump’s loss.
Those companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, are now suing Fox News in a pair of cases that pose severe financial risks to the network.
Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages and additional punitive damages, claiming Fox News knowingly promoted lies that it helped rig the election against Trump. The case is slated to go to a five-week trial on April 17 in a Delaware court. It’s still possible, if unlikely, that the companies reach a settlement before then. Smartmatic is demanding even more in its separate defamation suit, which is soon scheduled to move forward.
The most-watched network in cable news could have the resources to survive an adverse judgment. But the suit has already produced some severe reputational blows: Private text messages and emails released during the case show that on-air personalities, producers, and executives — including Fox chair Rupert Murdoch and host Tucker Carlson — did not believe the 2020 election was stolen, even as some at Fox News were uncritically promoting the conspiracy theories.
Defamation suits against media outlets are extremely difficult to win. But while the First Amendment and the landmark New York Times v. Sullivan Supreme Court ruling…
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