The Dominion Voting Systems defamation case against Fox News was brutal for the controversial network in a variety of ways, not the least of which was the evidence that reached the public. We learned, for example, that Fox apparently promoted bogus election claims they knew to be false, on purpose, in order to placate its audience and make money.
The good news for the network is that Dominion’s case is over: It was resolved in April with a $787.5 million settlement. The bad news for Fox is that this wasn’t the only case of its kind. NBC News reported:
Fox Corp. must face Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation suit, a New York judge ruled on Wednesday, denying a motion to dismiss defamation claims against Fox News’ parent company. But Smartmatic must also face Fox’s counterclaims that the substantial defamation claims are intended to suppress free speech, the judge ruled in a separate order.
It’s difficult to predict what might happen in this case, but as the process advances, it’s worth keeping in mind that Smartmatic’s lawsuit poses real dangers for Fox. A Washington Post analysis published last year helped summarize the significance of the dispute.
Many of the allegations against Smartmatic were similar to those against Dominion, and Smartmatic was often lumped in with Dominion in the same allegation. They included the false claims that Dominion machines used Smartmatic software to rig the election. They included the claim that Smartmatic was used to rig elections before and that its purported foreign ties demonstrated that. Smartmatic’s software was also cast as eminently flawed and even deliberately hackable. Indeed, Smartmatic was often cast as the actual conduit for stealing the election.
The Post’s report quoted University of Utah law professor RonNell Andersen Jones who said, “Smartmatic’s suit is in many respects even more compelling as a David-and-Goliath argument to put before a jury. Its complaint emphasizes that it played a totally small and uncontroversial role in the election and that these damaging lies from Fox catapulted it to fame by catapulting it to undeserved infamy.”
As for this week’s developments, Fox’s lawyers tried to argue that Fox Corp. shouldn’t be held legally responsible for Fox News’ coverage. New York County Supreme Court Justice David Cohen disagreed and advanced the competing claims.
A Fox spokesperson issued a statement this week saying they expect to prevail in an upcoming trial, characterizing Smartmatic’s claims as “implausible, disconnected from reality, and on their face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.” A Smartmatic attorney, meanwhile, said last year, “Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest. … Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy.”
Watch this space.
