Voting system maker Dominion is accusing US television stations Fox News and OAN, as well as online media outlet Newsmax, of slandering that its machines allegedly rigged Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election. Media outlets listed that are deemed to target conservative audiences face billions of dollars in fines. About it tells The Guardian.
Dominion alleges that Fox News and other right-wing news outlets have been spreading the lie that Dominion voting complexes “stole” Donald Trump’s 2020 election victory – and Joe Biden became President of the United States. Dominion asked TV channels to stop the spread of slander and correct the false reports, but the requests were ignored.
Commenting on the lawsuits, representatives of Fox News and Newsmax referred to the first amendment to the US Constitution, which protects freedom of speech and the press. Newsmax also said in a statement that the agency only relayed the words of Trump and his deputies and never reported that their claims were true. OAN did not respond to a request for comment.
However, experts and lawyers believe that conservative media may have serious problems. “All these Dominion machine conspiracy theories were pure nonsense. Fox, as a news organization, should have known about this and not given a big bullhorn lie,” said Ciara Torres-Spelliski, professor of constitutional law at Stetson University.
Fox News, the most watched and probably the most influential cable news channel in the US, is likely to outlive the Dominion lawsuit. The outlook for the smaller right-wing networks OAN and Newsmax is bleaker. “I think the OAN will be wiped out by legal fees,” says Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a right-wing media monitoring company.
- Dominion’s claim against Fox Corporation is $1.6 billion. Fox Corporation attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed, but the court ruled that Dominion provided sufficient evidence to consider it.
- Smartmatic, a developer of election software, has also accused right-wing American media of slandering the stolen election. In particular, her lawsuit against Fox Corporation is $2.7 billion.
- For the 2020 presidential election, Dominion delivered its voting systems to 28 of the 50 states. Smartmatic provided voting software in only one district, Los Angeles.
- U.S. courts, election commissions, and the U.S. Department of Justice, together with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have investigated and eliminated accusations of falsifying the results of the presidential elections in 2020.
