Dominion Voting Systems, an election tech company, has filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News Channel. Media personalities at the news channel have been accused of falsely perpetuating claims that voting machines designed by Dominion Voting Systems were used to sway the most recent presidential election in favor of Joe Biden. As the legal proceedings have unfolded, legal experts have argued that Fox News Channel could be in serious legal trouble moving forward.
“How often do you get ‘smoking gun’ emails that show, first, that persons responsible for the editorial content knew that the accusation was false, and also convincing emails that show the reason Fox reported this was for its own mercenary interests?” professor Ronald Chen of Rutgers University told NPR.
This week, more filings pertaining to the lawsuit were put forth. Most notably, one filing contained an email exchange between Fox Corp. Co-Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott. In an email from January 2021, Murdoch allegedly told Scott that he was tired of having “mud thrown” at Fox News Channel after the events of January 6, 2021. In another exchange, Murdoch allegedly said that Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham have “went too far” in endorsing former President Donald Trump’s claims about the most recent presidential election.
“Maybe Sean and Laura went too far,” Murdoch wrote, according to court filings.
“All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump but what did he tell his viewers?”
In response, Fox claimed that Dominion Voting Systems was using “distortions and misinformation” to “win this case.”
“Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red-handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press,” a statement from Fox reads.
“We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.”
