Voters cast their ballots Election Day 2020 in East Los Angeles. Smartmatic said it was the only district it operated in for the presidential election, but Fox News mentioned the company 137 times in the one month after President Trump and his allies issued statements. groundless about a rigged election.
Damian Dovarganes / AP
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Damian Dovarganes / AP
Voters cast their ballots Election Day 2020 in East Los Angeles. Smartmatic said it was the only district it operated in for the presidential election, but Fox News mentioned the company 137 times in the one month after President Trump and his allies issued statements. groundless about a rigged election.
Damian Dovarganes / AP
Fox News today filed a protest against voting machine maker Smartmatic, saying the company’s claims that it suffered $2.7 billion in damages are overstated.
Fox News argues that it warrants punishment under rules, known as anti-SLAPP laws, designed to protect the media from abuse lawsuits. The news network seeks to pay attorneys’ fees and “other and more relief as the Court deems fair and appropriate.”
A report by Fox News by University of Chicago business law professor Daniel R. Fischel found that Smartmatic had lost millions of dollars in the years leading up to the election. Nearly 75% year-on-year growth is needed to reach the numbers it is seeking from the news network, the report said.
“Although recovery of fees and expenses will not be able to undo all of the damage this First Amendment has caused,” the lawsuit says, “it may at least cause plaintiffs next must think twice before trying to punish the press at will for billions of dollars in non-existent damages. “
Smartmatic’s lawsuit, filed in February 2021, stems from the network’s coverage of fraud allegations – practically unfounded – by President Trump and his allies after the election 2020 election, as well as the opinions of several Fox News hosts. The company argued that the extent of coverage was willingness to engage in a disinformation campaign that hurt Smartmatic’s business prospects.
Fox News has asserted that it is within the First Amendment’s right to include presidential statements – despite the courts repeatedly denying it. dismissed Smartmatic’s lawsuit on those groundsmost recently March 9.
“It is ironic that Fox declared that Smartmatic’s lawsuit was unfounded after the Court found that the case had substantial legal and factual basis,” said Smartmatic attorney J. Erik Connolly. said in a statement ahead of Fox’s filing on Thursday. “The decisions of the courts nationwide regarding these defamatory statements speak for themselves; and, the courts are saying something very different from Fox.”
This isn’t the only lawsuit Fox News is fighting: Dominion Voting, another voting machine maker, has also sued the news network.
