Judge in Fox News, Dominion Case Says Network’s Legal Woes Mostly the Fault of One ‘Problem’ Host
thewrap.comis asking $1.6 billion in damages – significant, but not a potential death-blow for the crown jewel of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire – for what it says are defamatory statements about its voting machines in multiple reports, guest segments and host commentary immediately following the 2020 election.
Defamation cases hinge on “actual malice,” proof that the defendant intended harm – and Dominion has been pushing hard on that front in it pretrial efforts.Fox has maintained it was merely doing the news, and was protected by its framing of even the wildest election conspiracy theories as allegations and speculation.
Fox’s lawyers also argued Tuesday that there were, and still are, legitimate questions about security around Dominion machines.Dominion’s receipts include 20 on-air instances of what it says are defamation – a notable number of them featuring Lou Dobbs. “Lou Dobbs Tonight” was an engine of the stolen-election narrative, and though Dobbs was fired abruptly after Joe Biden’s win was certified, depositions revealed that Fox brass had been looking to move him out up to a year before.“This seems to be a Lou Dobbs problem,” Davis commented as Fox attorneys were going through the instances one by one.The pre-trial hearing was expected to resume Wednesday..
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