A Fox News channel sign is seen at the News Corporation building in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
A judge grilled Fox News about their 2020 election lies as part of the Smartmatic lawsuit.
In virtual oral arguments on Fox’s bid to have the case dropped, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge David Cohen pressed counsel for the conservative news outlet about specific claims made on its air by current and former hosts Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs.
“How is that not defamatory?” Cohen at one point asked Fox attorney Paul Clement after referencing a claim from Dobbs in mid-November that Smartmatic had been banned in Texas. The company had not been banned in the state.
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The Smartmatic lawsuit is separate from the Dominion lawsuit, but lawyers were ready for Fox’s claims that their election lies are protected under the First Amendment.
Fox argued that their shows are opinion programming and protected under the First Amendment, but Smartmatic said that hosts made statements of fact that were false about voting machines and voting systems, so it doesn’t matter what Fox News calls the show, it was spreading false information as fact about the 2020 election.
The lawsuits are not going well for Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Mike Lindell. The defendants lost a motion to have the Dominion lawsuit dismissed, and if a judge dismantles Fox News’s claim that they are opinion, the dam could break on series of lawsuits that could put them out of business.
Fox News is being held accountable for the lies and disinformation that they spread and disguise as news.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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