Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News? - The Guardian

Rupert Murdoch seldom has to reply for the alternate realities presented by his hugely profitable US cablegram network, Fox News.

Its conspiratorial claims of a parade of screen ups from the 2012 Benghazi onslaught to the clime situation and Covid-19 person been lapped up by Fox viewers and scorned by overmuch of the remainder of America, and past the satellite moved on. But connected Tuesday, the 91-year-old billionaire media mogul volition beryllium obliged to reply hard questions nether oath astir the interior workings of Fox.

Dominion Voting Systems is suing the cablegram quality presumption and its Murdoch-owned genitor company, Fox Corp, for $1.6bn (£1.3bn) implicit repeated claims that it rigged its voting machines arsenic portion of a conspiracy to bargain the 2020 statesmanlike predetermination from Donald Trump.

The suit shines a spotlight connected Fox News’ portion successful promoting Trump’s “stop the steal” run and its manus successful driving the January 6 insurrection astatine the Capitol. But ineligible experts accidental that Dominion, which supplied voting machines to 28 states, appears to beryllium gathering a wider lawsuit that Fox News has a agelong past of misinformation and steamrolling facts that bash not acceptable its editorial line.

Over the past fewer months, Dominion’s lawyers person been moving their mode up the histrion of Fox News producers, executives and presenters with interrogations nether oath astir the network’s enactment civilization and its weeks of conspiratorial, and astatine times outlandish, claims astir Trump’s defeat. On Monday, lawyers deposed Murdoch’s eldest son, presumed successor and Fox Corp CEO, Lachlan.

Now, Dominion has reached the apical of the tree. Months of accumulated grounds are expected to enactment Murdoch, the seat of Fox Corp, successful the hard presumption of either having to contradict helium has power implicit what happens astatine his astir influential US quality cognition oregon support its run to beforehand the biggest prevarication successful US electoral history.

Murdoch is already grappling with the costly bequest of phone hacking by British newspapers the News of the World and the Sun. His UK institution has paid much than £1bn ($1.2bn) implicit the past decennary to support the gruesome details from being heard successful unfastened tribunal with nary extremity successful show aft a precocious tribunal justice earlier this twelvemonth refused to forestall the filing of caller claims.

When Murdoch was called to springiness grounds to a UK parliamentary proceeding successful 2011 astir News of the World hacking the phones of a murdered schoolgirl arsenic good arsenic hundreds of politicians, celebrities and different nationalist figures, helium said that it was the astir humble time of his life. He besides claimed to person known thing astir the wrongdoing and said that helium had been misled.

“I consciousness that radical I trusted … I’m not saying who … fto maine down and I deliberation they behaved disgracefully,” helium told parliament. “And it’s clip for them to pay.”

But helium tin marque nary specified assertion astir Fox News, wherever its misrepresentations were connected afloat display. So far, the lone radical to wage astatine the web are the ones who got it right.

The occupation started connected predetermination nighttime aft Fox called the cardinal plaything authorities of Arizona for Joe Biden. The telephone drew Trump’s ire and unleashed a backlash against the web from his supporters.

At that point, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott warned against bowing to unit to clasp an alternate world and reverse the Arizona call.

“We can’t springiness the crazies an inch,” she said, according to tribunal records.

As it turned out, “the crazies” took a mile, arsenic Fox News enactment a parade of Trump lawyers, advisers and apologists beforehand and centre implicit the pursuing weeks to beforehand a myriad of conspiracy theories astir however the predetermination was stolen from Trump, including by rigging the voting machines.

Alongside them, immoderate of Fox’s biggest names took up the outcry of fraud. NPR revealed that during the find process, Dominion acquired an email written by a Fox News shaper begging colleagues not to let 1 of those presenters, Jeanine Pirro, connected the aerial due to the fact that she was spreading conspiracy theories astir the vote. Pirro, a erstwhile territory lawyer and justice who is adjacent to Trump, continued broadcasting.

Lawyers person besides obtained rafts of interior messages that are “evidence that Fox knew the lies it was broadcasting astir Dominion were false” and portion of a civilization of politically loaded reporting and broadcasts acold from the network’s assertion to beryllium “fair and balanced”.

Dominion claims that without Fox, “these fictions” astir electoral fraud would ne'er person gained the aforesaid traction among ample fig of Americans.

“Fox took a tiny occurrence and turned it into a wood fire,” the institution claims successful its lawsuit.

In August, lawyers questioned different presenter, Sean Hannity, who has been described arsenic “part of Trump’s run apparatus”. He was grilled for much than 7 hours including astir a broadcast 2 weeks aft the statesmanlike predetermination successful which Trump lawyer and conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell was a guest.

Powell claimed that Dominion “ran an algorithm that shaved disconnected votes from Trump and awarded them to Biden”. She said the institution “used the machines to inject and adhd monolithic quantities of votes for Mr Biden”. Powell has besides claimed that Dominion utilized bundle developed to assistance the precocious Venezuelan person Hugo Chávez bargain elections.

Dominion has said that it warned Fox News that specified claims were mendacious but that it continued to aerial them successful an effort to assuage Trump supporters retired of interest they would determination to different right-wing broadcasters.

“It’s an orchestrated effort,” Dominion’s lawyer told a tribunal hearing. “It’s not conscionable connected the portion of each big individually, but it’s crossed Fox News arsenic a company.”

So acold the lone Fox employees to wage a terms for the debacle are those who got it right. Weeks aft the election, the web fired its governmental director, Chris Stirewalt, who had infuriated Trump and different Republicans by refusing to backmost down from calling Arizona for Biden. The Washington managing editor, Bill Sammon, who supported Stirewalt’s decision, took retirement.

Fox argues that Hannity and the different presenters are protected by journalistic privilege but that presumption has been analyzable by the Fox host’s ain statement of his role.

In defending his overt bias successful favour of Trump and Republicans, Hannity has much than erstwhile said helium is not a journalist but a speech amusement host, and truthful does not person to adhere to the profession’s ethical standards. He took the aforesaid presumption earlier this twelvemonth aft the January 6 legislature committee exposed dozens of his messages to Trump’s main of staff, Mark Meadows, offering proposal and seeking direction arsenic the White House challenged the statesmanlike predetermination result.