Background in this case:
Among the inaccurate claims pushed by Trump's supporters, and amplified by the former president, was that Dominion is owned by a company founded in Venezuela to rig elections for Hugo Chavez, the dictator who died in 2013. In other instances, Trump's allies also falsely alleged that Dominion's algorithms and software flipped votes from Trump to Joe Biden or deleted votes, and made the false claim that Dominion paid kickbacks to government officials in exchange for contracts to provide voting machines.
As a result of these claims, Dominion said its business and employees suffered — workers were stalked, harassed and received death threats, it lost profits and its reputation was damaged.
What does Dominion need to do to prove defamation?
In order to successfully prove Fox should be held responsible, Dominion must convince a jury that the network acted with "actual malice," the legal standard set in the Supreme Court's landmark 1964 decision in
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.
To show actual malice, a public figure must prove the publisher knew the offending statements were false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
In its lawsuit filed against Fox News in March 2021, Dominion wrote that Fox refused to retract false and defamatory statements despite being informed multiple times that its claims were inaccurate, "demonstrating its actual malice in publishing them."
Dominion, for example, sent more than 3,600 emails to Fox reporters, producers, anchors and content managers beginning Nov. 12, 2020, that debunked Fox's statements and explained how they were false.
The company said it also had a conversation with Fox News president and executive editor Jay Wallace about the unfounded claims, and sent the network letters demanding retractions of the false allegations it was spreading.
Despite this correspondence, Fox "refused to retract any of its false and defamatory statements about Dominion," the voting company argued.
"The truth matters. Lies have consequences," Dominion claimed in its lawsuit. "Fox sold a false story of election fraud in order to serve its own commercial purposes, severely injuring Dominion in the process. If this case does not rise to the level of defamation by a broadcaster, then nothing does."
What does Fox say?
The crux of Fox News' argument is that it was engaging in activity protected by the First Amendment: ensuring that "the public had access to newsmakers and newsworthy information that would help foster 'uninhibited, robust, and wide-open' debate on rapidly developing events of unparalleled importance."
"Dominion filed this lawsuit to make Fox News pay for participating in that vital debate at a price that would stifle similar debates going forward," Fox News lawyers said in a
filingwith the court. "Making an unsupportable but publicity-generating and speech-chilling claim for $1.6 billion in damages, Dominion accused Fox News of defamation. But allegations and facts are two different things, and the costly (and chilling) discovery that Fox News has been forced to endure for more than a year confirms what it has said from the beginning: Dominion's lawsuit is an assault on the First Amendment and the free press."
Over the next few weeks, Dominion Voting Systems will try to convince a jury that Fox News knowingly defamed it in the wake of the 2020 presidential election.
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