Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Newsmax priorities slammed in lawsuit
‘Groveling fealty to big sponsors over regard for the truth’
The priorities and practices of Newsmax were shredded Monday in a major lawsuit — and the media outlet wasn’t even the target of the case.
Newsmax, the Boca Raton-based cable channel and website, has sought to become the media home for fans of former President Donald Trump. It enjoyed a ratings bump after the November election, when Trump and his allies perpetuated the false claim that he actually won re-election and voting was riddled with fraud.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, Dominion Voting Systems — the target of many false claims that it rigged the presidential election — went after one of the biggest purveyors of those claims: Mike Lindell, known widely as the MyPillow guy. He’s the CEO of the pillow company and closely associated with Trump.
Newsmax isn’t a defendant in Dominion’s $1.3 billion lawsuit against Lindell, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C.
But some of the language reads like a case against the cable channel.
For example, Dominion analyzed Newsmax’s decision to air a December statement that “No evidence has been offered that Dominion or Smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election.”
Dominion said Newsmax broadcast that segment “because it was worried about being sued for defamation—not because it cared about the truth. If Newsmax cared about the truth, it would not have broadcast the Big Lie again after issuing the ‘clarifying’ segment.”
In December, Dominion sent Newsmax letters warning about coming litigation, and Newsmax aired its clarifying segment “purporting to clarify its coverage of Dominion and the election.”
Brian Peterson, Newsmax senior vice president for communications and marketing, said by email that it “made its statement on Dominion and Smartmatic before being apprised of any legal concerns from Dominion.”
“Newsmax reported on claims being made by President Trump and his lawyers and representatives, many of which were recounted in court filings. At the same time, Newsmax aired and published many stories noting that the claims about Dominion being made by President Trump and his lawyers and surrogates, were being challenged by Dominion and others,” Peterson added. “We stand by our reporting as having covered claims of public concern being made by the Trump campaign, as well as the responses from relevant parties.”
The descriptions of Newsmax in the lawsuit were part of the narrative Dominion offered about ways in which Lindell spread his claims — and in the voting company’s view used Newsmax to further his efforts to promote the conspiracy theories.
For example, the complaint said, on Jan. 28, “one of MyPillow’s other financial beneficiaries — Newsmax — jumped to curry favor with its patron, claiming Lindell was being ‘targeted’ because ‘[d]uring the election he stood up for what he believed,’ and telling its viewers to ‘support him by buying one of his great pillows or related products.’ ”
It also cited a subsequent Lindell appearance on Newsmax, occasioned by the MyPillow executive’s getting banned from Twitter for spreading election disinformation and seeing the corporate MyPillow account banned because Lindell tried to use it to circumvent the ban on his personal account.
“Newsmax knew that the discussion of those bans was an invitation to have Lindell repeat the Big Lie that had gotten Lindell banned from Twitter in the first place. For weeks prior to that, Newsmax had broadcast defamatory falsehoods about Dominion. And Newsmax was fully aware at this point that the Big Lie was in fact a lie, as evidenced by Newsmax’s own prior ‘clarifying’ segment on the topic,” the complaint said. “But, unwilling to lose MyPillow ad dollars and seeking to protect its credibility with people it had already misled into believing the election was stolen, Newsmax bowed to the pressure and gave its financial backer a global platform to repeat the Big Lie that Newsmax knew was false — and to market MyPillow.”
The Newsmax interview with Lindell about Twitter generated attention, because the Newsmax anchor Bob Sellers tried to stop Lindell from talking about Dominion, talked over Lindell by reading a legal statement, and then got out of his chair and left.
Newsmax fans criticized Sellers for the way he treated Lindell, and the Newsmax host said he “could have handled the end of the interview differently. … Mike also made clear he thinks Newsmax is great — his words— and I can tell you he will continue being an important guest on Newsmax.” In Monday’s lawsuit, Dominion said the Sellers’ segment was “a further show of Newsmax’s priorities — groveling fealty to big sponsors over regard for the truth.”
Meanwhile, the lawsuit said, Newsmax had invited Lindell back, where he appeared with another host “to smooth things over, market MyPillow, and lend further credibility to Lindell and the Big Lie about Dominion. Rob Schmitt acknowledged the earlier interview and told Lindell, ‘obviously you were on the network earlier in the day and we made some waves there. We’ll leave it at that. But you and Newsmax have always had a good relationship.’ Newsmax again promoted the Big Lie by giving Lindell a platform to say, in reference to the earlier interview where he had said he had ‘100% proof ’ of ‘fraud with the Dominion machines’ ” and that he would have more to say in subsequent days.
During that appearance, the lawsuit said, Lindell “told viewers that they “could still use ‘the promo code ‘Newsmax’ on MyPillow.com to save up to 66%.’ ”
Newsmax is mentioned repeatedly in the 115-page complaint against Lindell, but many of the references are used as examples of statements made by Lindell — not suggestions of impropriety by the cable channel.
For example, the lawsuit cited a Dec. 21 appearance by Lindell on Newsmax in which he “falsely stated: ‘The biggest fraud is the Dominion machines.’ ”
There is no evidence the election was stolen. Republican elections officials, and Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, have said there was no widespread fraud. Federal judges appointed by Trump issued multiple opinions finding there was no basis to the claims of irregularities. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who championed everything Trump wanted in the last four years, said Biden was the clear, legitimate winner.
Dominion said its reputation has been damaged by the allegations, and previously filed lawsuits against Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Dominion’s CEO said Monday the latest case “is by no means the last.”
Voting technology company Smartmatic, based in Boca Raton, already has gone after Fox News Channel with a $2.7 billion defamation suit filed Feb. 4. In December, Smartmatic also threatened legal action in letters to Newsmax and another far-right outlet, One America News.
Lindell told the Associated Press that he welcomed the Dominion lawsuit and said that the discovery process will prove him right. “It’s a very good day. I’ve been looking forward to them finally suing,” he said.
Lindell took umbrage at being repeatedly accused in the lawsuit of telling “the Big Lie” — noting to the Associated Press that the expression was coined by Adolf Hitler — “The Big Lie here is the big lie. They’re the big lie.”
The Newsmax website was founded 1998 by Chris Ruddy, and he launched Newsmax TV in 2014. It’s been a small player, hard to find for people who don’t look. On Comcast cable, it’s on channel 1115, far away from the big, well-known cable news outlets.
Fox News Channel is still by far the biggest player in conservative cable. But Newsmax got support from Trump, and viewership from some of his supporters, after the election when Fox joined the rest of the mainstream media reporting that Joe Biden won the election. Newsmax didn’t acknowledge victory until weeks after the election.