Dominion in Court: A Media Litigation Against The Fox News Network for Dilemma and Other Negligence after the 2020 2020 Election
Conservative TV darlings Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and a slew of other Fox News stars and executives, including the network’s 92-year-old owner Rupert Murdoch, may soon have their days in court in what stands to be the biggest media trial since the 1980s.
Colorado-based Dominion Voting Systems, a tech company that manufactures electronic voting machines, is suing Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. for defaming it in the weeks following the 2020 election and irreparably damaging its business.
Dominion alleges that Fox hosts and executives knew that those claims about its voting machines were false – or, at the very least, acted with reckless disregard for the truth – in a bid to rescue the network’s ratings. After being the first network to call the pivotal state of Arizona for Biden on election night, Fox News saw its audience numbers plummet. (Many of its viewers were Trump supporters.)
A cache of private messages, emails and depositions revealed that Fox may not have upheld the journalistic responsibility to report the truth to audiences. The judge has rejected several of Fox’s First Amendment defenses and in pretrial rulings barred the network from arguing its guests’ alleged defamatory statements were “newsworthy” and deserving of coverage.
Thanks to a 1964 Supreme Court ruling, there is a high bar to meet to prove defamation in the U.S. legal system. The burden of proof is on the person who is responsible for it. Dominion attorneys must prove that Fox leaders knew, or should have known, that the statements hosts and guests made against Dominion were false or acted in reckless disregard for the truth.
It is known as “actual malice”. It’s meant to protect media outlets from being punished for reporting critically on powerful figures, including corporations and the government.
Dominion Voting Systems Can’t Disturbate Fox News: Behind-the-Scènes Communications and the Fourth Estate
In a pre-trial ruling this month, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis asserted there is no question that the contested statements Fox aired about Dominion were false.
Legal filings made public a trove of private text messages, emails and deposition transcripts, revealing how Fox hosts, producers, and executives really felt about Trump.
Two of those guests were Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, and Sidney Powell, a Trump ally and attorney. (Dominion has separately sued both Giuliani and Powell but there have been no rulings in either of those cases.)
“The whole thing seems insane to me, and Sidney Powell won’t release the evidence. After the election, Carlson told his fellow hosts that he hated it.
Asked by a Dominion attorney under oath whether or not he could have directed Scott to stop hosting Powell and Giuliani on Fox, Murdoch answered that he could have.
The attorneys for Fox said the election technology company’s worth is nowhere near what Dominion is asking for.
A trial in a defamation suit brought against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems is set to begin this week. It could have significant ramifications for the right-wing cable channel.
• Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer who alleged that the network’s lawyers coerced her into providing misleading testimony in a lawsuit filed March
“Both parties have made these witnesses very relevant,” Davis said, regarding the Murdochs. Fox was trying to block Dominion from having the Murdochs on the witness stand.
That could impact Fox’s bottom line. Fox Corporation, the right-wing news outlet’s owner, has an estimated $4 billion in cash on hand, according to its latest earnings statement. It is not clear how much insurance the company has, or if any of it would be covered.
Fox argued in a statement the case is about protecting “the rights of the free press” and a verdict in favor of Dominion would have “grave consequences” for the fourth estate.
The damning behind-the-scenes communications are part of the 10,000 pages of court documents that have been made public and are expected to be shown in the trial.
The Tucker Carlson Trial: a New Look at the Trump-Biden Disavored Scenario in the Post-Election Era
For example, host Tucker Carlson said in one text message he “passionately” hates Trump. In one November 2020 exchange, Tucker Carlson said Trump’s decision to snub Joe Biden’s inauguration was “so destructive,” adding that Trump’s post-election behavior was “disgusting” and that he was “trying to look away.”
Murdoch’s private messages revealed how his own thoughts contradicted what Fox espoused. “Maybe Sean [Hannity] and Laura [Ingraham] went too far,” Murdoch wrote in an email Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott, apparently referencing election denialism after Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden.
The trial will begin Monday in Delaware at 9 am ET, with expected opening statements at some point during the day. The jury selection is expected to end Monday morning with 12 jurors and 12 alternates. After the jury is seated, it is anticipated that opening statements will begin. The trial is expected to last at least five weeks.