In private, Fox News stars and staff denounced election fraud claims as fake, court filings show
Fox News employees knew that claims blaming Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat on election fraud were outlandish and false. newly opened court documents looks like shown.
The document, which pulled from a host of internal communications from Fox News employees involved in covering the election, shows the network’s producers, executives and stars that the election was not stolen and that many of the fraud claims are bogus. It includes comments and quotes that reveal what we knew.
The filing is the latest public defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, one of the largest manufacturers of voting equipment in the United States. fox news at $1.6 billion.
The Dominion has been a frequent target of conspiracy theorists who falsely claim that Trump won the 2020 presidential election. The company’s lawsuit contains hundreds of pages, including that the company’s software was manipulated against Trump or that the company was secretly owned in Venezuela. It records the number of times the network has made bogus claims against the company.
“There will be a lot of commotion and confusion by the Dominion and its opportunistic private equity owners, but at the heart of this case are the fundamental rights granted by the Constitution and protected by New York: freedom of the press and freedom of the press. It’s about free speech. The Times v. Sullivan,” Fox said in a statement Thursday night.
The newly unsealed messages and comments are the clearest evidence that many at Fox recognized that the election fraud allegations had no real basis.
Even certain hosts, who sometimes embrace conspiracy theories on the show, filed election lawsuits to stop multiple states Joe Biden won from proving the truth, according to filings. He said privately that he knew he was not talking about
Dominion is Powell also sues for defamation.
Tucker Carlson told producers shortly after the election that Powell was “lying,” documents show.
According to lawsuit documents, Sean Hannity said: I couldn’t believe it for a second. ”
Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
Even Fox’s internal fact-checking after the election found the allegations of election fraud to be “false” and “not evidence of widespread fraud.”
Dominion says the network deliberately aired false claims that “recklessly ignored the truth” and defamed it in order to increase its viewership.
Fox has endorsed its coverage of the 2020 election and said its broadcasts will be protected By First Amendment.
Fox’s lawyer include In their defense, they exposed allegations of election fraud.Dominion is claimed Fox was unable to fully present evidence before trial.
In a counterclaim filed Thursday, Fox said Dominion had no evidence to support its “astonishing” damage claims, arguing that Trump’s allegations were “undeniably newsworthy.” Fox News viewers were made aware that the allegations were reported as allegations, the network said.
It also said Dominion’s lawsuit took quotes from its reports out of context and ignored reports of Dominion’s rebuttals to its false allegations.
“The Dominion lawsuit is an attack on the First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” Fox wrote in the filing. “The record indicates that Dominion’s key allegations are unfounded, legally unsound, or both.”
Jane C. Tim and Reuters contributed.
https://www.nbcnews.com/media/private-fox-news-stars-staff-blasted-election-fraud-claims-bogus-court-rcna71123 In private, Fox News stars and staff denounced election fraud claims as fake, court filings show