Defamation

Dominion Files $1.7 Billion Defamation Suit Against Fox For Election 'Journalism'

Fox around and find out.

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“If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does.”

It’s a pretty fair distillation of the $1.7 billion suit against Fox News for airing false allegations that Dominion Voting Systems’ used its machines to steal the election from Donald Trump. In a 141-page complaint filed yesterday in a Delaware court, Dominion accuses Fox of knowingly hyping lies about the election in a desperate bid to hold on to viewers furious that the network called the race for Arizona on election night.

“In the face of intense backlash and viewers beginning to flee to rival networks, Fox understood that it needed to embrace and amplify the lies that had begun to circulate about Dominion,” the company claims, adding, “Fox took a small flame and turned it into a forest fire.”

So even though the network itself had aired multiple segments in October explaining that the early-counted in-person votes would skew heavily toward Trump, while the absentee vote favoring Biden would be counted later, Fox personalities went all in on the claim that the apparent “vote shift” was evidence of fraud.

Maria Bartiromo discussed it with President Trump himself on October 11, when he called in to lament that districts would still be counting mail-in ballots “two weeks after the vote comes in.” Nevertheless, on November 8, she hosted Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell to pretend this was evidence of something nefarious.

“Sidney, we talked about the Dominion software. I know that there were voting irregularities. Tell me about that,” Bartiromo asked.

“That’s putting it mildly. The computer glitches could not and should not have happened at all. That is where the fraud took place, where they were flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist. We need an audit of all of the computer systems that played any role in this fraud whatsoever,” Powell responded. “They had the algorithms … That’s when they had to stop the vote count and go in and replace votes for Biden and take away Trump votes.”

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“Why was there an overnight popping of the vote tabulation that cannot be explained for Biden?” shouted Jeanine Pirro on November 21.

Dominion lists multiple broadcasts by Bartiromo, Pirro, and their fellow hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Lou Dobbs, all of whom promoted false claims about the election and gave airtime to cranks like Mike Lindell, Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell to spout lies. It’s a recitation similar to that made by its competitor Smartmatic in that company’s defamation suit against the network.

Moreover, Dominion notes that the network and its hosts had actual knowledge that the claims were false, since by November 12 the company ‘s lawyers were sending out regular blast emails to Fox management and hosts with debunking the network’s allegations and demanding retraction.

For example:

On November 26, 2020, Dominion sent another email to more than 90 Fox reporters, producers, anchors, hosts, and content managers with the same sets of facts from the earlier “SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT” emails, as well as additional specific facts debunking claims that Dominion had rigged the election in Pennsylvania, including that Dominion serves only 14 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, that Trump exceeded his 2016 vote percentage in 11 of those 14 counties, that Trump won 12 of those 14 counties, and that “Dominion doesn’t operate in Philadelphia County, Allegheny County, or other highly contested districts.”

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And yet, Fox continued to allow Giuliani, Lindell, and Powell to come on its airwaves and say that Dominion was a Venezuelan company, owned by Smartmatic, responsible for flipping the vote. Powell even went so far as to accuse it of paying “kickbacks” to the Georgia governor and secretary of state in an appearance with Bartiromo on November 15.

Odds that Dominion brings up Powell’s own I’m full of shit and no one in their right mind would believe what I said defamation defense in their suit against Fox? Pretty, pretty good.

According to Dominion, Fox’s ratings soared as millions of Americans were convinced that the election had been stolen from their preferred candidate. Meanwhile, Dominion’s reputation was destroyed, as its name became co-terminus with fraud and multiple states canceled contracts with the company. Most recently, on March 10, Stark County, Ohio, canceled a $10 million agreement to purchase voting machines from Dominion.

To make it whole, Dominion demands “$600 million in lost profits, $1 billion in lost enterprise value, security costs of $600,000, and another $700,000 for expenses incurred combatting the disinformation campaign.” Plus punitive damages and whatever it costs to have Thomas Clare and local counsel Thomas Farnan to litigate this thing. Susman Godfrey has also joined Dominion’s legal squad, and the firm’s team will be led by partners Justin Nelson, Stephen Shackelford, and Davida Brook.

“Fox News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court,” the company said in a statement.

This will get messy.

US Dominion, Inc. v. Fox News, LLC [Complaint via Washington Post]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

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