Fox News is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for $1.6 billion.
Dominion found itself at the center of conspiracies following the 2020 presidential election, including from former President Donald Trump and his supporters that its voting machines had flipped votes to Joe Biden or deleted votes for Trump. That claim was debunked by CBS News.
The lawsuit against Fox News states, “Fox, one of the most powerful media companies in the United States, gave life to a manufactured storyline about election fraud that cast a then-little known voting machine company called Dominion as the villain.”
It continues to claim that following the election on Nov. 3 “viewers began fleeing Fox in favor of media outlets endorsing the lie that massive fraud caused President Trump to lose the election.”
The lawsuit reads:
“They saw Fox as insufficiently supportive of President Trump, including because Fox was the first network to declare that President Trump lost Arizona. So Fox set out to lure viewers back — including President Trump himself — by intentionally and falsely blaming Dominion for President Trump’s loss by rigging the election.”
Dominion alleges that Fox News “falsely” claimed that “(1) Dominion committed election fraud by rigging the 2020 Presidential Election; (2) Dominion’s software and algorithms manipulated vote counts in the 2020 Presidential Election; (3) Dominion is owned by a company founded in Venezuela to rig elections for the dictator Hugo Chávez; and (4) Dominion paid kickbacks to government officials who used its machines in the 2020 Presidential Election.”
It later adds, “The truth matters. Lies have consequences.”
Fox News said in a statement to Dominion’s lawsuit, “FOX News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”
From Dominion's $1.6b lawsuit against Fox News:
— Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) March 26, 2021
"…two weeks after the storming of the Capitol, Fox announced that Maria Bartiromo was being given the opportunity to replace Martha MacCallum and anchor Fox’s coveted 7:00 p.m. weekday primetime slot."https://t.co/yAMCiBRviI
Fox News issues statement on Dominion lawsuit:
— Aidan McLaughlin (@aidnmclaughlin) March 26, 2021
“FOX News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”https://t.co/8dSiWvj3nO
Fox News is facing another lawsuit from Smartmatic for over $2.7 billion in damages. Fox News filed a motion to dismiss it.
Dominion also sued Sidney Powell, a lawyer who advised President Donald Trump’s campaign, for $1.3 billion, alleging she spread false conspiracy theories. She has since asked the judge to throw out the lawsuit.