How much will Fox News end up paying Dominion Voting Systems for defamation?
Based on what happened in a Delaware courtroom Thursday I’d guess that sometime in the future Fox News will write Dominion Voting Systems a BIG FAT CHECK.
For weeks and months after the election Fox News hosts and guests trashed the company while claiming the election had been rigged.
On Thursday, however, Delaware state court Judge Eric M. Davis refused to dismiss Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network, writing in part: “Fox possessed countervailing evidence of election fraud from the Department of Justice, election experts, and Dominion at the time it had been making its statements. The fact that, despite this evidence, Fox continued to publish its allegations against Dominion, suggests Fox knew the allegations were probably false.”
This doesn’t mean Dominion has proved its case.
It means only that the case can go forward.
In addition to the network, the case names current and former Fox personalities Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, as well as Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs.
Fox News and its political minions all over the nation, including pretty much every Republican politician in Arizona except for the GOP members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Recorder Stephen Richer and a few others, spread misinformation, conspiracy theories and debunked claims of election fraud from the moment former President Donald Trump began publicly indulging in that fantasy.
Not yet a win, but a step forward
But Dominion isn’t a politician. It is a business that is dependent on its reputation for honest work, and the attacks on its integrity could have destroyed it.
So, it’s fighting back.
And while the judge’s ruling does not mean it has won, it means the case can move forward.
And cases like this have a discovery phase.
And I can’t imagine that Fox News wants anything to do with that.
I hope it does go forward, because I suspect there will be some fascinating revelations found in emails, texts, memos and other internal communications that went on within Fox during the time the nasty claims about Dominion were being made by Fox’s hosts and their guests.
Would Fox allow for discovery?
But I’d be surprised if we ever see those messages.
Before that happens I’d guess Fox will offer Dominion a BIG FAT CHECK to avoid having to share internal exchanges and other information with Dominion’s lawyers and, subsequently, with the public.
And while that is often how things go in situations like this I’d prefer the case to go all the way to a trial.
Put everyone’s cards on the table.
Leave it up to a jury.
Who just may determine that Dominion’s $1.6 billion claim is grossly … inadequate.
Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How much will Fox News pay Dominion Voting Systems for defamation?
