Dominion Voting Systems and Fox offered dueling views of defamation law in their latest filings, as each side seeks a summary judgment ruling that could forestall a planned trial in April.
17.02.2023 - 04:55 / deadline.com
Fox News hosts and executives, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, did not believe Donald Trump’s election fraud claims in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, but the network nevertheless amplified the conspiracy theories as it worried about losing viewers to Newsmax, according to filings from Dominion Voting Systems made public on Thursday.
In its motion for summary judgment in its $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox, with a redacted version made public on Thursday, Dominion makes heavy use of text messages and emails from the Fox personalities and staff to contend that the network was well aware that claims made by guests such as Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani were bogus. (Read it here).
“Really crazy stuff,” Rupert Murdoch wrote in a Nov. 19 text about Giuliani, according to the filing.
Dominion’s lawsuit is over claims, made on air by Powell, Giuliani and others, and then advanced by Fox News figures like Lou Dobbs, that it was involved in rigging the results of the 2020 election. Dominion contends that many at the network knew the claims were false, but executives and hosts worried of losing Trump-supporting viewers if Fox News called them out as unfounded.
In its filing, Dominion’s attorneys wrote, “Fox knew the truth. It knew the allegations against Dominion were ‘outlandish’ and ‘crazy’ and ‘ludicrous’ and ‘nuts.’ Yet it used the power and influence of its platform to promote that false story. Fox knew better.”
With its own motion for summary judgment (read it here and here) also made public, Fox said in a statement that Dominion is taking an “extreme and unsupported view of defamation law and rests on an accounting of the facts that has no basis in the record.” Fox
Dominion Voting Systems and Fox offered dueling views of defamation law in their latest filings, as each side seeks a summary judgment ruling that could forestall a planned trial in April.
A huge release of text messages, emails and deposition transcripts dropped today in the Dominion vs. Fox litigation sheds further light on the scramble among Fox News personalities and Fox Corp. executives to respond to the backlash in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and then the repercussions after the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
Fox News is citing newly found emails from Maria Bartiromo’s personal account that they intend to use in their defense of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit.
The New York Times examined the response of those networks to the private messages that were made public in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. According to the NY Times findings, only four publications – Gateway Pundit, Newsmax, the Washington Examiner and the Western Journal – mentioned the suit in some way. However, none of them worked the Fox employees’ private comments into their coverage.
Katie Reul editor On the heels of a close victory at Super Bowl LVII, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is once again taking over global television screens as this week’s host of “Saturday Night Live.” The episode opened with a mock “Fox & Friends” segment, featuring Mikey Day as Steve Doocy, Heidi Gardner as Ainsley Earhardt and Bowen Yang as Brian Kilmeade. The sketch comes amid a cascade of embarrassing revelations around Fox News and its major stars in recent days as the litigation grinds on in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems after the 2020 election. As Earhardt, Gardner says of the network’s founder Rupert Murdoch: “Rupert Murdoch would never murder anyone. They sent him away for life. Look how sad he looks.” An image of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh then appears on the screen as Earhardt realizes her mistake.
filing earlier this month: That top hosts including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo were privately horrified that their network was pushing Trump’s “stolen election” narrative – but went on-air with it anyway.“Is there really that much going on at two in the afternoon on Fox News that you can’t cover him live?” the popular “War Room” podcaster asked the crowd. “They don’t respect you, read the depositions.
Semafor. Fox did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.Meanwhile, his main rival (as yet unofficial) candidate, Florida Governor Ron Desantis, has been on Fox regularly.
Donald Trump continued to rail against Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch following the release of documents in Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries seized on the latest revelations from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News, as they called on Rupert Murdoch to curb hosts from spreading election conspiracy theories.
explosive texts from Fox News hosts revealed in February as part of Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against the network, Hasan Minhaj is still a bit gobsmacked. On Tuesday night, the “Daily Show” guest host joked that, in reality, it seems Fox personalities are more like those on MSNBC.A quick refresher on those messages: in a court filing on Thursday, February 16, Dominion Voting provided texts, emails and other forms of communication between Fox News hosts from after the 2020 election, in which they called out some of the network’s guests for perpetuating unsupported claims that voting was electronically rigged against twice-impeached former president Donald Trump.Among the messages were ones that said things like “Sidney Powell is lying,” sent from Tucker Carlson to his producer Alex Pfeiffer on Nov.
Donald Trump went on the attack against Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch following the latest revelations from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the media company.
Representative Adam Schiff calls for advertisers to rethink putting their dollars behind Fox News and “stations that deliberately put out lies and deliberately undermine our elections,” tells MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, “Since there is nothing but the profit motive operating here, the only way to attack is to attack the profit.”The Democratic rep from California stopped by “The Last Word” Monday to discuss, among many things, Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against FNC for defamation and the recent release of news that Fox corporate chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that top Fox News hosts “endorsed” on-air what they knew to be a false narrative.“We see the Fox executives, including the very top executive, understood that they were lying to the American people and what a destructive impact it was having on our elections, on the confidence of our elections, and they did nothing to stop it and,” Schiff said. “Indeed, they affirmatively allowed it to go on because they were worried about losing ratings.”Schiff called Fox News and all those that work there “shameful” for their behavior.
filing earlier this month: That top hosts, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo were privately horrified that their network was pushing Donald Trump’s “stolen election” narrative – but went ahead with it anyway.“I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” Murdoch told the Superior Court of the state of Delaware, according to the filing.The documents revealed that top executives also reacted with incredulity – bordering on contempt – to various fictitious allegations about Dominion, including that a secret algorithm in its voting machines allowed ballots to be switched, and that the company was founded in Venezuela to help its former president, Hugo Chávez, fix elections.“Executives at all levels of Fox … knowingly opened Fox’s airwaves to false conspiracy theories about Dominion,” the filing states.Murdoch also said in his testimony that it was wrong for Fox hosts to “endorse” lies if they knew them not to be true: “Fox has a role in making sure people can agree on a basic set of facts,” he said last month. “Yes.
Prime News on Wednesday, Feb. 22, where he was asked to comment on the Biden administration’s handling of a train carrying hazardous materials that derailed in eastern Ohio earlier this month.The junior Trump said that “Joe [Biden] doesn’t give a crap” about the environmental turmoil and potential dangers facing the residents of East Palestine, Ohio — who were temporarily forced to evacuate the area after the derailment — and “couldn’t care less” about the situation on the ground.He then shifted the conversation to attack Buttigieg for his handling of the crisis.
Jimmy Kimmel due to the late night host's constant barrage of jokes aimed at the then-President, according to a report.Two former Trump administration officials told Rolling Stone that the POTUS was so incensed with Jimmy's constant jabs that he directed the White House staff to call Disney executives and demand action.One source told the mag that Trump complained the "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" host was "very dishonest and doing things that [Trump] would have once sued over." Rolling Stone says high ranking people at Disney — which owns ABC, the network Jimmy's show airs on — were confused as to why the leader of the free world was so annoyed at the barbs, particularly given that top politicians have been used as late night fodder for decades.The exact number of calls allegedly placed to Disney executives isn't known. "I do not know to who[m], but it happened. Nobody thought it was going to change anything but DJT was focused on it so we had to do something…It was doing something, mostly, to say to [Trump], 'Hey, we did this,'" a Trumpworld source said. The former POTUS, who famously hates being the punchline, has previously voiced his opinion about late night hosts.
Rupert Murdoch said in a recent deposition that he “would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing” Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 presidential election, conspiracy theories that the Fox Corp. executive chairman at once called “bulls— and damaging.”
John Oliver started off Last Week Tonight roasting Fox News for the second week in a row. The HBO Max host showed started off by noting that Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg attended the train derailment in Ohio.
Fox News is a very profitable organization, and so are its stars.
if Mr. Trump was capable of turning the spotlight off himself and putting it onto those families and that community that’s in a lot of pain, a lot of fear,” Begala said.
John Oliver returned with Last Week Tonight after a three-month hiatus and it wasn’t long before he started taking swipes at Fox News.