Fox News should have known better.
That was the conclusion of Judge Eric Davis on Thursday, when he allowed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit levied against the cable news giant to proceed. Davis, a Delaware state judge, ruled that Fox News pushed a conspiracy theory about Dominion Voting Systems rigging the 2020 election even though significant evidence existed to debunk that claim.
“Fox possessed countervailing evidence of election fraud from the Department of Justice, election experts, and Dominion at the time it had been making its statements,” Davis wrote. “The fact that, despite this evidence, Fox continued to publish its allegations against Dominion, suggests Fox knew the allegations were probably false.”
Davis noted that the broadcaster’s failure to cover Dominion’s response to the unfounded conspiracy theory leads to a “reasonable inference that Fox intended to keep Dominion’s side of the story out of the narrative.”
The judge was also unmoved by Fox News’ claim that its on-air personalities merely reported the news with a little extra verve.
“Although Fox classifies its reporters’ remarks as ‘commentary’ that used ‘loose and hyperbolic rhetoric’ for entertainment value, even loose and hyperbolic language can be actionable if it rests on false statements of fact undisclosed to viewers,” the judge wrote.
Bloomberg provides key context:
Defamation lawsuits filed by Dominion against former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani also survived motions to dismiss in federal court in Washington.
The suit in Delaware also names current and former Fox personalities Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, as well as Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs, accusing them of allowing Giuliani and Powell to repeatedly spread lies on air even after being made aware that swing states like Arizona and Georgia had confirmed the accuracy of their votes.
“Despite Arizona and Georgia’s audits confirming the Dominion machines’ accuracy, Mr. Dobbs and Mr. Hannity again brought on Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell to assert their claims that Dominion rigged the election by changing votes in its machines,” the judge wrote.
Crucially, Davis’ decision will allow Dominion to continue to seek internal emails and other forms of communication from Fox News to see how they were discussing the accusations against the voting systems company. Fox News personalities and executives might also have to provide sworn testimony.
“Fox News, along with every single news organization across the country, vigorously covered the breaking news surrounding the unprecedented 2020 election, providing full context of every story with in-depth reporting and clear-cut analysis,” the network said in a statement
