Fox News Lawsuit

Sha’heed Houchens, Journalist

     

On March 26, 2021, Fox News was sued for 1.6 billion dollars by the Dominion Voting Systems for allegedly claiming that Fox News was reporting to the media that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent and rigged by the company.

November 8, 2020, a day after the election was deemed victorious for President Biden, Fox News would invite lawyer Sidney Powell, who was known to be a close Trump affiliate. On air, she would falsely accuse the Dominion Voting Systems of fraudulent activities behind the 2020 presidential election. The Dominion Voting System would repeatedly tell Fox News to retract its false claims, but they would be ignored numerous times.

Fast forward to December 2020 to January 2021, Rudy Giaulliani, a former New York mayor and one of Trump’s former attorneys, would repeatedly go onto Fox News with Sidney Powell to spread their false accusations against the Dominion Voting System. Giulliani’s involvement in the case would be crucial later on, as there was an audio recording of him saying that he had no evidence to back up his false accusations against the Dominion Voting System.

 

Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell at a news conference that was organized by Trump and his legal team.

 

Finally on March 26, 2021–4 months after the election–The Dominion Voting System sued Fox News for the accusations made in a Delaware court. Eight months later, the company would sue the Fox corporation itself. Fox attempted to dismiss the whole lawsuit, but was denied by the Delaware Superior Court.

Keith Rupert Murdoch, the founder of Fox, would go on to state that the election was not rigged by the Dominion Voting System and would testify in court stating that Fox News hosts, such as Tucker Carlson, endorsed this narrative against the Dominion Voting System. He also went on to say in court that he told Republican senate leader Mitch McConell to “ask other Republicans not to endorse Trump’s allegations and false claims.” 

However, there were several times where a few Fox News hosts would say the allegations were unproven and would try to give insight on what they thought. Fox News lawyers in court even brought up the fact that Fox News hosts would often get into disagreements on air with each other about the case.

 

A photo of Rupert Murdoch, the founder and head of Fox news.

 

Finally, on April 18, both the Dominion Voting System and the Fox corporation would come to a settlement of 787,500,000 USD, which is about half of the 1.6 billion USD that the Dominion Voting System asked for. 

Even though there was a lot of evidence being presented against the Fox corporation, there’s still much more evidence that has yet to be covered. Throughout the trial, documents and statements would alter and remove certain portions of confidential evidence against the Fox corporation.

Though the lawsuit has been settled and resolved, Fox News still has another major lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting company. The company, like the Dominion Voting System, would be defamed by Fox News. The lawsuit between these two, however, is still in the pre-trial phase and a trial isn’t expected to happen anytime soon.

As for the Dominion Voting System, they have impending lawsuits against several news organizations and people, including Rudy Giulliani and Sidney Powell. Both Giulliani and Powell deny any wrongdoings.

 

Sources:

Jennifer Peltz and Nicholas Riccardi (2023, Apr. 18)

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-to-know-about-the-fox-news-defamation-lawsuit#:~:text=Dominion%20 Voting%20Systems%20 sued%20Fox,supporters%20of%20the%20Republican%20president

David Bauder, Randall Chase and Geoff Mulvihill (2023, Apr. 18)

https://apnews.com/article/fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trial-trump-2020-0ac71f75acfacc52ea80b3e747fb0afe#:~:text=Dominion%20had%20sued%20Fox%20for,Trump%20to%20Democrat%20Joe%20Biden

David Folkenflik and Mary Yang (2023, Apr. 18)

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/18/1170339114/fox-news-settles-blockbuster-defamation-lawsuit-with-dominion-voting-systems 

Jack Queen (2023, Apr. 18)

https://www.reuters.com/legal/timeline-key-events-leading-up-fox-dominion-defamation-trial-2023-04-18/ 

Dani Anguiano (2023, Feb. 27)

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/feb/27/rupert-murdoch-deposition-dominion-lawsuit-fox-news 

Jeremy W. Peters and Katie Robertson (2023, Feb. 27)

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/business/media/fox-news-dominion-rupert-murdoch.html 

Jance C. Timm (2023, Apr. 18)

https://www.nbcnews.com/media/fox-news-settles-dominion-defamation-lawsuit-rcna80285 

Marshall Cohen and Oliver Darcy (2023, Apr. 19)

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/media/fox-dominion-settlement/index.html 

Photos:

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/22/trump-campaign-sidney-powell-legal-439357 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch#/media/File:Rupert_Murdoch_-_Flickr_-_Eva_Rinaldi_Celebrity_and_Live_Music_Photographer.jpg