“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg apparently believes the Department of Justice (DOJ) should take action against Fox News for its coverage of the 2020 election.
During a segment about Fox News’ coverage on Wednesday, Goldberg said, “You can make a mistake and say something. It happens, and people say, ‘Oh no, that wasn’t right.'”
“But you knew! You knew, you knew, you knew. And you know people are still listening to you, and you’re still lying,” she continued, adding, “I hope that the DOJ looks through a whole bunch of stuff and figures out what to do about this.”
Co-host Sunny Hostin chimed in, “I hope Merrick Garland’s listening!”
Watch the video below:
LAWSUIT REVEALS TUCKER CARLSON WAS FED UP WITH TRUMP: As information from the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News reveals more about what allegedly occurred behind the scenes at the cable network in the wake of the 2020 election, #TheView co-hosts react. https://t.co/cVclFZQU98 pic.twitter.com/Egtixc6KVZ
— The View (@TheView) March 8, 2023
The suggestion the DOJ should take action was sparked by Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Legal filings from the suit allege hosts and executives privately raised doubts about claims the 2020 election was stolen while airing those same claims on its airwaves.
Rupert Murdoch, the owner, and chairman of Fox News’ parent company, fretted two of the network’s opinion hosts may have gone “too far” in talking about claims the 2020 election was stolen.
In a Jan. 21, 2021, email to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, Murdoch noted the network was still “getting mud thrown at us” over the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, per The Hill.
He also wrote about hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, “Maybe Sean and Laura went too far.”
“All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump, but what did he tell his viewers?” he added.
In testimony from Murdoch, in a separate filing, he admitted that “some of our commentators were endorsing” conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
For its part, Fox News insists Dominion “mischaracterized the record” and “cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context” in its legal filings.
If Dominion’s lawyers make the case Fox News ran afoul of defamation laws, the network could wind up paying a hefty price for promoting claims the election was stolen.
But there is the issue of the First Amendment. And it is not the DOJ’s job to investigate Fox News because of its programming. That is a ridiculous notion and would chill free speech. What would the argument be? Maybe something like, “Fox News hosts knew the claims were false yet gave the sitting president’s allies air time to share their claims anyway — and outlets should not let people go on TV and lie.”
By that logic, a lot of people in Washington, D.C., would not be allowed to go on TV. It would potentially also prevent people from sharing their arguments or their side of the story if they were accused of lying.
It only sounds good to Goldberg because she does not like Fox News. However, it would set a precedent of the DOJ looking into media outlets. And future administrations might decide CNN or MSNBC shared lies on their airwaves and deserve some kind of investigation or prosecution.