NEW YORK (AP) – Starting Monday in a Delaware court, Fox News executives and stars will be held accountable for their role in spreading doubt about the 2020 presidential election. and creating the gaping wound that remains in America’s democracy.
Jurors to hear $1.6 billion lawsuit filed against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems A specific question must be answered: Did Fox defame the voting machine company by airing false stories alleging the election was rigged against then-President Donald Trump, even though many on the network are private that cast doubt on the false claims pushed by Trump and his allies?
Yet the broader context looms large. The trial will test the freedom of the press and the reputation of conservatives’ favorite news source. It will also illuminate the flow of misinformation that helped start the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol and continues to boost Trump’s hopes of regaining power in 2024.
Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and founder Rupert Murdoch are among the people expected to testify in the coming weeks.
Barring a last-minute settlement, opening statements are scheduled for Monday.
“It’s Christmas Eve for blasphemy scholars,” said RonNell Andersen Jones, a law professor at the University of Utah.
If the test were a sporting event, Fox News would be leading the field in a losing streak, with key players injured and the referee recently fired. Court decisions before trial and embarrassing revelations about its biggest names have Fox on its heels.
Court papers released over the past two months show Fox executives, producers and personalities privately disbelieving Trump’s claims of a fraudulent election. But Dominion says Fox News fears alienating its audience with the truth, especially after many viewers were outraged by the network’s decision to declare Democrat Joe Biden the winner of Arizona on election night in November 2020.
Several rulings by the presiding judge, Eric Davis, eased Dominion’s path. In a summary judgment, Davis said it was “CRYSTAL clear” that the allegations of fraud against the company are false. That means the trial period shouldn’t be spent denying them at a time when millions of Republicans continue to doubt the 2020 results.
Davis said Dominion’s reputation was also clearly damaged, but the jury will decide whether Fox acted with “actual malice” — the legal standard — and, if so, what the financial value is.
Fox’s witnesses are likely to testify that they thought the allegations against Dominion were newsworthy, but Davis made it clear that’s not a defense against defamation — and he’ll make sure the jury knows that.
New York law protects news outlets from defamation for expressing opinion. But Davis methodically went through 20 different times at Fox when the allegations against Dominion were discussed, ruling that they were all fully or partially considered statements of fact, and fair game for a potential libel finding.
“A lawsuit is a little bit like hitting a home run,” said Cary Coglianese, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “You have to go through all the bases to get there.” The judge’s rulings “basically gave Dominion a spot on third base, and all they had to do was come home to win it.”
Fox and Dominion are incorporated in Delaware, although Fox News is headquartered in New York and Dominion is based in Denver.
Fox angered Davis this past week when the judge said the network’s attorneys delayed producing evidence. and has yet to reveal Murdoch’s role at Fox News. A Fox attorney, Blake Rohrbacher, sent a letter of apology to Davis on Friday, saying it was a misunderstanding and not an intent to deceive.
It is not clear whether this will affect the test. But it’s generally unwise to have a judge assume at the outset of a trial whether your side is telling the truth, especially if the truth is the central point of the case, Jones said.
The lawsuit essentially hinges on whether Dominion can prove that Fox acted with actual malice by putting something on the air that it knew was false or acted with “reckless disregard.” if this is true. In most libel cases, that is the most difficult hurdle for plaintiffs to overcome.
Dominion can point to several examples where Fox figures don’t believe the charges made by Trump allies like Sidney Powell and Rudolph Giuliani. But Fox said many of the non-believers are not in a position to decide when to release the allegations.
“We think it’s important for them to connect the dots,” said Fox attorney Erin Murphy.
The jury will determine whether a powerful man like Murdoch – who testified in a deposition that he did not believe the charges of electoral fraud — had the influence of keeping the accusations in the air.
“Credibility is always important in any trial in any case. But it will be very important in this case,” said Jane Kirtley, director of the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota.
Kirtley worries that the lawsuit could eventually go to the US Supreme Court, which could use it as a pretext to weaken the actual malice standard set by the 1964 New York Times Co. decision. v. Sullivan. That, he felt, was damaging to journalists.
Dominion’s lawsuit is closely watched by another voting technology company that has a separate but similar lawsuit against Fox News. Florida-based Smartmatic is looking at some of the rulings and evidence in the Dominion case to try to advance its own $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit in New York. The Smartmatic case is not yet ready for trial but has survived Fox News’ efforts to throw it away.
Many experts were surprised that Fox and Dominion did not reach an out-of-court settlement, although they could at any time. There is likely a wide range of financial content. In court papers, Fox contended that the $1.6 billion damages claim was a wild overestimate.
Dominion’s enthusiasm may also give Fox the ultimate embarrassment of looking into the network’s internal communications after the election. Text messages from January 2021 reveal Carlson told a friend he hated Trump and can’t wait to move on.
Dominion can also apologize.
The test had no apparent effect on Fox News’ viewership; it remains the top-rated cable network. Fox media reporter Howard Kurtz said earlier this year that he was barred from covering the lawsuit., but the network has since changed direction. Kurtz discussed the case on his show Sunday, saying he was in Wilmington for the start of the trial.
“The real potential danger is if Fox viewers understand they’re being lied to. There’s a real downside there,” said Charlie Sykes, founder of the Bulwark website and an MSNBC contributor.
There is little indication that the case has changed Fox’s editorial direction or been cut in its view. Fox embraces Trump again in recent weeks after the former president was indicted by a Manhattan grand juryand Carlson presents an alternative history of the Capitol riots, based on tapes given to him by House Speaker Kevin McCarthyR-Calif.
Just because there has been limited discussion of the Dominion suit at Fox doesn’t mean its fans don’t know about it, said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative watchdog Media Research Center.
“There’s a certain amount of tribal reaction to it,” Graham said. “When all the other networks are excited about the revelation of the text messages and emails, they see this as the latest attempt by the liberal media to discredit Fox News. There is a rally-around-Rupert effect. “
The trial is expected to last until late May.
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
