Fox’s fear of losing Trump fans led false election claims, lawsuit says
Worried about then-President Donald Trump’s fans dumping Fox News Channel — and turning instead to its rivals, like Boca Raton-based Newsmax — helped convince Fox to air false claims of election fraud, a new lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, said that “with Fox’s ratings in freefall and Fox viewers fleeing to Newsmax and OAN at then-President Trump’s behest, Fox, through its most prominent on-air personalities, cynically exploited these lies to lure viewers back.”
Dominion Voting Systems filed the defamation lawsuit against Fox, claiming the cable channel falsely aired claims that the election technology company rigged the 2020 election.
Many of the Trump camp’s claims aired on Fox, Newsmax and One America News, another upstart hoping to siphon some of the pro-Trump audience away from Fox, the longtime home of right-leaning cable news viewers.
Dominion, claiming it was damaged by the assertions by Fox and people it put on the channel, is seeking $1.6 billion in damages.
Newsmax wasn’t the focus of the lawsuit, but the threat Dominion said Fox was feeling from the media outlet was mentioned several times.
Dominion’s lawsuit included a chart depicting a 2020 decline in daytime ratings for Fox News Channel. At the same time, the lawsuit said, Newsmax’s daytime ratings were increasing. In response, Fox pointed to Nielsen Media Research ratings showing it far, far ahead of Newsmax from Dec. 28 through March 22.
Fox News
Media
responded to the overall Dominion lawsuit with a written statement on Friday: “FOX News Media is proud of our 2020 election coverage, which stands in the highest tradition of American journalism, and will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit in court.”
In February, another voting technology company, Smartmatic USA, based in Boca Raton, sued Fox, three of its hosts and prominent Trump-supporting lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell for $2.7 billion. Fox has filed motions to dismiss the Smartmatic claims.
Earlier this year, Dominion filed suits against, Giuliani, Powell and another prominent purveyor of Trump’s claims, Mike Lindell, the “MyPillow guy,” each for $1.3 billion.
Dominion’s new lawsuit against Fox described Trump’swidelyreported,
post-election frustration with Fox, especially its reporting that he lost Arizona. “Still fuming from Fox’s call of Arizona and believing that Fox was not sufficiently loyal to him, President Trump directed his anger at Fox,” the lawsuit reads.
On. Nov. 9, the lawsuit said, Trump tweeted “a series of stories from Fox rival Newsmax related to false claims of election fraud” and later posted a link from the far-right site Breitbart that referred to an “exploding backlash against Fox News.” On. Nov. 12, Trump “sent a flurry of tweets vilifying Fox and encouraging viewers to switch to other networks.”
The lawsuit said that “n the face of intense backlash and viewers beginning to flee to rival networks, Fox understood that it needed to embrace and amplify the lies that had begun to circulateaboutDominion.”
Election fraud claims
There is no evidence that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.Republican elections officials in multiple states said there was no widespread fraud. Elected Republicans who supported former President Donald Trump’s re-election certified President Joe Biden as the winning their states.
Federal judges appointed by Trump issued multiple opinions finding there was no basis to the claims of irregularities.Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Biden was the clear, legitimate winner. And Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, said there was no widespread fraud.