The Dominion Voting Systems’ case against Fox News for defamation has gained national attention. This case is set to be a precedent-setting case and will have great implications for freedom of the press and the freedom of speech.
The latest development, in this case, is bound to prove disastrous for Fox News executives. In an article that was recently published by Dogwood, a Courier Newsroom publication, it was revealed Fox News executives knew that the claims they were making were bogus, however, they continued to make those assertions.
The leaked text messages between Fox executives were submitted in court as additional evidence by Dominion Voting Systems. This evidence may conclusively prove that they were aware that Trump’s allegations of election fraud were untrue.
Some of the words used by Fox’s executives to describe the lies they were spreading live include: “MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS”; “Really crazy stuff”; “Totally off the rails”; “Shockingly reckless”; and “Dangerously insane”.
The leaked text messages also prove that Fox news hosts were aware that the guests they were hosting on their shows were lying, and deliberately chose to do nothing about it. Instead, they aired these lies to the American public just for ratings.
On Nov. 16, Alex Pfeiffer received a text from Tucker Carlson stating: “Sidney Powell is lying. F***ing b***h.” Carlson also texted co-host Laura Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham replied: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.”
The released texts show malice aforethought from Fox News anchors, executives, and chairman, as they aired these lies to prevent losing viewers to other conservative TV networks, One America News and Newsmax. This is going to prove disastrous for Fox news because this shows an intention to profit from endangering democracy.
It seems likely that Dominion Voting Systems may win this case against Fox News, to the tune of $1.6 billion, because even Rupert Murdoch has claimed under oath that Trump’s lies were endorsed by Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, and Sean Hannity. Murdoch, while on oath, also said that he was skeptical of Trump’s claims. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” he said.
Throughout, Fox News had been arguing that its hosts were unaware that the claims being made on their channel by Powell and Giuliani were untrue, reported the Courier Newsroom publication, Dogwood. However, the latest submissions by Dominion undermine any of these claims because it is clear that Fox’s hosts were well aware of the lies being spewed on their shows. To make matters worse for Fox, its research department had fact-checked the claims against Dominion and deemed them to be false. This didn’t stop Fox from airing them.
Fox’s collusion with Trump goes much further than endorsing his campaign’s lies. It was also revealed that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, had received confidential information about the ads Biden intended to run on Fox.
The decision in these proceedings may spell a lot more trouble for Fox News because its role in spreading the lies which led to the Jan 6 insurrection at Capitol Hill may lead the channel to be held liable for being an accessory to the events.
For more shocking revelations, read the Courier Newsroom publication’s article here.