Fox News Throws Trump Under The Bus
According to recent reports, Fox News has adopted a different approach in their defense against a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems. This strategy involves placing blame on former President Donald Trump for the network’s purported falsehoods about the company during the 2020 presidential race.
According to Newsweek, Fox News is currently dealing with a defamation lawsuit that amounts to $1.6 billion, stemming from their persistent broadcasting of fabricated claims linked to the 2020 presidential election. Dominion Voting Systems has accused Fox News executives of intentionally encouraging their on-air personalities to deceive viewers about the election’s security, despite many privately expressing skepticism about the accuracy of former President Trump’s assertions of electoral fraud.
Dominion has contended that Fox News’ executives attempted to tarnish the company’s reputation in a bid to retain its conservative viewership and bolster former President Trump’s unfounded allegations that the election was unfairly manipulated against him. They claim that the network employed deliberate misrepresentations of the facts to achieve this goal.
Previously, Fox News had attempted to downplay the involvement of its executive leadership in the defamation lawsuit. However, recent indications suggest that the network has shifted its stance and is now holding former President Trump responsible for the allegations.
On the eve of the trial’s expected commencement, Fox News’ lawyers submitted legal papers requesting the presiding judge to permit the introduction of evidence that would argue that the network’s supposed defamatory statements regarding Dominion’s voting machines were primarily influenced by former President Trump’s own rhetoric that the election, involving Dominion, was rigged against him.
Should the court accept this new evidence, it could have a significant impact on the trajectory of the case. In order to prevail in a defamation lawsuit, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the defendant acted with harmful intent in defaming them. By attempting to shift the blame onto former President Trump, Fox News could potentially argue that any false statements they made about Dominion Voting Systems were not made with malicious intent, but rather were a result of following the former President’s lead.
Fox News’ lawyers argued that former President Trump’s comments about Dominion were newsworthy due to his position as President, which raises questions as to whether the network’s hosts were acting with “actual malice” when repeating his claims on air. By framing Trump’s statements as newsworthy, Fox News could potentially argue that their on-air personalities were merely reporting on a matter of public interest, rather than engaging in willful defamation.
Fox News’ legal team has asserted that the jury should be tasked with determining whether “allegations made by a sitting US president carry weight simply because of the person making them” when assessing whether the network and its reporters deliberately defamed Dominion. By posing this question, the defense is attempting to further highlight former President Trump’s role in perpetuating false claims about Dominion’s involvement in election fraud, potentially undermining the plaintiff’s claims that Fox News acted with malicious intent.
