(Trends Wide) — The defamation lawsuit brought against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems will begin this week. It could have major ramifications for the right-wing cable channel.
The trial was expected to begin Monday in Delaware, but Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced it would be delayed until Tuesday, according to a statement issued Sunday night by the court.
Dominion is an election technology company. After former US President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Dominion alleged that Fox pushed various pro-Trump conspiracy theories, including false and potentially damaging information about the company’s voting technology, because “the lies were good for Fox’s business”. Fox argues that it was simply reporting on claims made by the Trump administration and associates of the former president.
He filed a libel suit in 2021.
Here are 5 things to know before trial.
Fox anchors and executives could take the stand
Dominion wants the network’s star presenters and top executives to appear on the witness stand during the trial, it said in a court filing in March.
Here is who could appear as witnesses, if Dominion has their way:
- Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News
- Jay Wallace, presidente de Fox News
- Presenters Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham and Bret Baier.
- Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer who alleged that the network’s lawyers coerced her into giving misleading testimony in a lawsuit filed in March.
- In April, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said Dominion could compel Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, to testify in a major blow to Fox.
“Both parties have made these witnesses very relevant,” Davis said, referring to the Murdochs. Fox was trying to stop Dominion from taking the Murdochs to the stand.
There’s big money at stake
Dominion seeks $1.6 billion in damages and additional punitive damages.
This could deal a serious financial blow to Fox. Fox Corporation, which owns the right-wing news channel, has about $4 billion in cash, according to its latest earnings statement. It’s also unclear how much insurance the company carries, or what any insurance policy would cover.
However, punitive damages do not have a legal limit in Delaware.
The network claims that figure is an exaggerated amount designed to draw attention to headlines.
First Amendment Implications
Fox argued in a statement that the case tries to protect “the rights of the free press” and that a verdict in favor of Dominion would have “serious consequences” for the fourth estate.
“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade for financial gain, but the real cost would be precious First Amendment rights,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement.
Libel cases are hard to win in the United States, due to the Supreme Court ruling in the New York Times v. Sullivan case in 1964. Libel has to meet a very strict standard. An entity cannot have lied out of hand, it must have known (or at least strongly suspected) that it was lying at the time, and it must have done so with “actual malice”. The court has already ruled on the first two, saying that Fox uttered lies and knew they were lies, so rather than a question of truth, it is whether Fox did so with malice.
Although senior Fox figures privately acknowledged the reality—that former President Donald Trump had lost to President Joe Biden in 2020—Fox continued to broadcast conspiracies and lies to keep its large audience hooked.
A series of private messages, emails and statements revealed that Fox may not have upheld a journalistic responsibility to inform the audience of the truth. The judge has rejected several of Fox’s First Amendment defenses and, in pretrial rulings, barred the network from arguing that its guests’ alleged defamatory statements were “newsworthy” and worthy of coverage.
Private messages made public
Court documents released a series of private text messages, emails and transcripts of statements, revealing how Fox anchors, producers and executives really felt about Trump.
The damning internal communications were included in some 10,000 pages of court documents that have been made public as part of the lawsuit, many of which are likely to be shown at trial.
For example, host Tucker Carlson said in a text message that he “passionately” hates Trump. In a November 2020 exchange, Tucker Carlson called Trump’s decision to snub Joe Biden’s inauguration “so destructive,” adding that Trump’s post-election behavior was “disgusting” and that he was “trying to look away”.
Murdoch emailed the New York Post’s Col Allan describing Trump’s election lies as “nonsense” and “harmful.”
Murdoch’s private messages revealed how his own thoughts contradicted what Fox stood for. “Maybe Sean (Hannity) and Laura (Ingraham) went too far,” Murdoch wrote in an email to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, apparently referring to voter denialism following Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden.
what’s next
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said he will call a hearing Monday morning to formally announce the one-day delay. In this way, no other procedures are expected this Monday in this case.
The trial will begin with opening statements sometime during the day. Jury selection is also expected to wrap up this Tuesday morning, ending with a panel of 12 jurors and 12 alternates. Opening arguments are expected to begin immediately after the jury is formed. The trial is expected to last between five and six weeks.
Dominion will have to convince the jury that Fox acted with “actual malice”; that is, showing that the right-wing network’s hosts and executives knew what was being said on the air was false but broadcast it anyway, or that they acted with such reckless disregard for the truth that they should be held accountable.
— Trends Wide’s Oliver Darcy, Marshall Cohen and Jon Passantino contributed to this article.
Related Post
(Trends Wide) — The defamation lawsuit brought against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems will begin this week. It could have major ramifications for the right-wing cable channel.
The trial was expected to begin Monday in Delaware, but Superior Court Judge Eric Davis announced it would be delayed until Tuesday, according to a statement issued Sunday night by the court.
Dominion is an election technology company. After former US President Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Dominion alleged that Fox pushed various pro-Trump conspiracy theories, including false and potentially damaging information about the company’s voting technology, because “the lies were good for Fox’s business”. Fox argues that it was simply reporting on claims made by the Trump administration and associates of the former president.
He filed a libel suit in 2021.
Here are 5 things to know before trial.
Fox anchors and executives could take the stand
Dominion wants the network’s star presenters and top executives to appear on the witness stand during the trial, it said in a court filing in March.
Here is who could appear as witnesses, if Dominion has their way:
- Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News
- Jay Wallace, presidente de Fox News
- Presenters Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham and Bret Baier.
- Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer who alleged that the network’s lawyers coerced her into giving misleading testimony in a lawsuit filed in March.
- In April, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said Dominion could compel Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, to testify in a major blow to Fox.
“Both parties have made these witnesses very relevant,” Davis said, referring to the Murdochs. Fox was trying to stop Dominion from taking the Murdochs to the stand.
There’s big money at stake
Dominion seeks $1.6 billion in damages and additional punitive damages.
This could deal a serious financial blow to Fox. Fox Corporation, which owns the right-wing news channel, has about $4 billion in cash, according to its latest earnings statement. It’s also unclear how much insurance the company carries, or what any insurance policy would cover.
However, punitive damages do not have a legal limit in Delaware.
The network claims that figure is an exaggerated amount designed to draw attention to headlines.
First Amendment Implications
Fox argued in a statement that the case tries to protect “the rights of the free press” and that a verdict in favor of Dominion would have “serious consequences” for the fourth estate.
“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade for financial gain, but the real cost would be precious First Amendment rights,” a Fox spokesperson said in a statement.
Libel cases are hard to win in the United States, due to the Supreme Court ruling in the New York Times v. Sullivan case in 1964. Libel has to meet a very strict standard. An entity cannot have lied out of hand, it must have known (or at least strongly suspected) that it was lying at the time, and it must have done so with “actual malice”. The court has already ruled on the first two, saying that Fox uttered lies and knew they were lies, so rather than a question of truth, it is whether Fox did so with malice.
Although senior Fox figures privately acknowledged the reality—that former President Donald Trump had lost to President Joe Biden in 2020—Fox continued to broadcast conspiracies and lies to keep its large audience hooked.
A series of private messages, emails and statements revealed that Fox may not have upheld a journalistic responsibility to inform the audience of the truth. The judge has rejected several of Fox’s First Amendment defenses and, in pretrial rulings, barred the network from arguing that its guests’ alleged defamatory statements were “newsworthy” and worthy of coverage.
Private messages made public
Court documents released a series of private text messages, emails and transcripts of statements, revealing how Fox anchors, producers and executives really felt about Trump.
The damning internal communications were included in some 10,000 pages of court documents that have been made public as part of the lawsuit, many of which are likely to be shown at trial.
For example, host Tucker Carlson said in a text message that he “passionately” hates Trump. In a November 2020 exchange, Tucker Carlson called Trump’s decision to snub Joe Biden’s inauguration “so destructive,” adding that Trump’s post-election behavior was “disgusting” and that he was “trying to look away”.
Murdoch emailed the New York Post’s Col Allan describing Trump’s election lies as “nonsense” and “harmful.”
Murdoch’s private messages revealed how his own thoughts contradicted what Fox stood for. “Maybe Sean (Hannity) and Laura (Ingraham) went too far,” Murdoch wrote in an email to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, apparently referring to voter denialism following Trump’s loss to President Joe Biden.
what’s next
Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said he will call a hearing Monday morning to formally announce the one-day delay. In this way, no other procedures are expected this Monday in this case.
The trial will begin with opening statements sometime during the day. Jury selection is also expected to wrap up this Tuesday morning, ending with a panel of 12 jurors and 12 alternates. Opening arguments are expected to begin immediately after the jury is formed. The trial is expected to last between five and six weeks.
Dominion will have to convince the jury that Fox acted with “actual malice”; that is, showing that the right-wing network’s hosts and executives knew what was being said on the air was false but broadcast it anyway, or that they acted with such reckless disregard for the truth that they should be held accountable.
— Trends Wide’s Oliver Darcy, Marshall Cohen and Jon Passantino contributed to this article.
