Month after month, news cycle after news cycle, some things never change, including the never-ending debate about the 2020 presidential election, with allegations that the election was “rigged” and “stolen,” Donald Trump’s role in the aftermath, and, on a Journalistic sidetrackDominion Voting Systems has filed a defamation suit against Fox News worth $1.6 million for accusing them of being complicit in voter fraud.
So, here’s the question, in this case: Was Dominion a villain or victim? The truth depends on who you are predisposed to believe. Questions remain for those who are in the middle. Both sides.
Dominion filed a $1.6 Billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corporation. This was after several Fox News hosts including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity repeatedly claimed that Fox Corporation was complicit with (alleged) voter fraud.
As reported by The Hill, Dominion’s lawyers have argued in court filings that Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch and other leaders at Fox Corp. knowingly allowed the network to air false claims of voter fraud, saying they “decided to promote former President Trump’s narrative after Trump’s condemnation of Fox damaged its stock and viewership.” Incidentally, as you might recall, multiple political pundits who had previously sung Fox’s praises turned on a dime and joined Trump’s condemnation of the “Fair and Balanced” network, only to later return to the dutiful fold.
Fox attempted to dismiss the case on First Amendment grounds. But a Delaware Superior Court judge ruled in June that the case against Fox could continue. It should be noted that Fox also filed a similar motion to dismiss Smartmatic’s similar $2.7 billion suit, bizarrely claiming that allegations against the voting systems company were “newsworthy,” even if false. Fox News hosts made the accusations, but that was not the problem.
The New York Times reports that Hannity has been scheduled for Wednesday’s deposition. Carlson and Dobbs will then be deposed Friday. Court records show “The Five” co-host Jeannine Pirro, “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy, and a number of high-end Fox producers have also been recently deposed. These depositions show that Dominion aggressively pursues its case against Fox.
Here’s more, via The Times:
Fox is accused of making far-fetched and false claims about voter fraud in order to lure viewers back to its news outlets. In its initial complaint, Dominion’s lawyers framed their lawsuit as a matter of profound civic importance. “The truth matters,” they said, adding, “Lies have consequences.”
[…]
Dominion’s legal complaint lays out how Fox repeatedly aired conspiracy theories about the company’s purported role in a plot to steal votes from former President Donald J. Trump, and argues that its business has suffered considerably as a result.
Those falsehoods — including that Dominion was a pawn of the Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez and that its machines were designed with a feature that allowed votes to be flipped from one candidate to another — aired night after night as Fox hosts like Mr. Hannity and Mr. Dobbs allowed guests to make them on their shows, and in some cases vouched for them.
A spokesman for Fox Corporation, noted The Times, has claimed the First Amendment protected the company from the suit, and that any attempt by Dominion lawyers to put the Murdochs at the center of their case would be a “fruitless fishing expedition.”
The network is “confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected,” a Fox News spokeswoman said in a statement. She added that the $1.6 billion in damages that Dominion is seeking are “outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis.” According to court filings, Dominion estimates business losses at hundreds of millions of dollars and values the company at around $1 billion.
And so the band goes on. The song stays the same. Each and every word.
Bottom line:
As I suggested at the top, battle lines have long been drawn over the 2020 election and its aftermath, including the January 6 Capitol riot, the unprecedented FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, and Trump’s continuing insistence that the election was indeed “rigged” and “stolen.”
These battle lines will not be changed by any evidence, no matter how strong or weak.
Therefore, 2020 will look like a weekend school picnic in 2024.