From the outside, the large Fox News tower, erected in the heart of Manhattan, seems unfazed. But behind its walls, it’s another story. The outlet is the subject of two defamation claims stemming from its coverage of the 2020 presidential election results.
In the first, Dominion Voting Systems, a company specializing in electronic voting, accuses the Conservative channel of having “validated, repeated and disseminated a series of verifiable and devastating lies” on an alleged manipulation of its technology in favor of Joe Biden. She claims 1.6 billion dollars from him as part of a trial which is due to open on April 17. The second comes from Smartmatic, a similar company which asks for 2.7 billion for the same reasons. A colossal sum which would correspond to the amount of his losses because of the statements made on the air.
In addition, a former producer of the chain, Abby Grossberg, whom the legal team of Fox would have pushed to make misleading statements during her testimony in the context of the Dominion affair, also filed a complaint against the media, denouncing in passing the misogyny that would reign internally. She was dismissed on Friday March 24.
Notorious conspirators on the air
The Dominion file is particularly embarrassing for the company. While internal exchanges collected by the investigators showed that many of the channel’s star presenters were skeptical, in private, about an alleged manipulation of the results, they participated in their propagation by speaking on the air, without contradiction, to notorious conspiratorial guests. Among the latter, the lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who notably circulated the far-fetched idea that Dominion had rigged the Venezuelan elections in favor of Hugo Chavez.
Thus, Tucker Carlson, cable’s most-watched host with more than 3.1 million viewers, claimed in front of the cameras that “knows nothing about computer programs” of Dominion, while writing in a text message to his producer that the charges against the company were “absurd”. Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo, two other stars of the chain, had a similar behavior. “It’s easier to get good audiences when you give your audience something they want to hear”, said the second, according to court documents. In this case, that of Fox did not want to hear that Joe Biden had won the ballot legally.
Even Rupert Murdoch, whose family controls the channel, said in an email that the 2020 election ‘theft’ allegations were “totally crazy” and acknowledged to investigators that some “commentators” of the chain had “endorsed” the fanciful remarks of their interlocutors. The media magnate’s lawyers are now trying to prevent their client from being forced to go to trial because of his age (92) and the threat of Covid. An argument swept away by the judge, Tuesday, March 27, who noted that the businessman before the intention to travel soon between four cities with his new fiancée. “Don’t make me look like an idiot”launched the magistrate.
Fox News carried away by the lure of profit?
The outlet defended itself by arguing that Dominion was asked during this period to respond to the charges against it and that the company’s complaint goes against the freedom of the press, protected by the constitution. American. “The bar for proving defamation is very high in the United States. The complainant must be able to show that the disputed information was published knowing that it was false or that it was published in flagrant disregard of the truth, with the intention of harming. It appears from the internal exchanges revealed as part of the legal proceedings that Fox News knew that the elements shared were false ”observes Joseph Russomanno, professor of journalism and specialist in media law at Arizona State University (ASU).
Dominion criticizes Fox News for having been carried away by the lure of profit. After the election, the channel came under heavy criticism from its audience because its editorial staff had projected, long before other mainstream media outlets, that Joe Biden would win Arizona, a key state for the White House. A gesture seen as a crime of lèse-majesté against Donald Trump. The Fox would have liked to redeem itself by dirtying Dominion.
This did not convince everyone. In February, at CPAC, the great gathering of the Trumpist right, Steve Bannon, mastermind of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, called on the public to drop Fox News in favor of media deemed more loyal to the billionaire, candidate for the Republican primaries for 2024. “This division of the publicsays Joseph Russomanno, could be even more dangerous for Fox than any lawsuit. »
