In early December, Scott He responded angrily When a Fox correspondent fact-checked one of Trump’s election conspiracy claims on air, he told another executive in an email, “This has to stop now.”
“This is bad for business,” she added.
In other communications, court documents say, executives talked about the need to “advance the case” and said they were wary of “the piss.”[ing] outside the viewers.
Dominion says its lawyers sent Fox employees more than 3,600 emails to try to correct Fox’s reporting on the case. The company has identified 20 specific statements from Fox programming between November 8, 2020 and January 26, 2021, which it says are legally defamatory.
Davis did say that the evidence in the case “makes clear that none of Dominion’s statements about the 2020 election are true.”
No matter how strong Dominion’s case may seem, the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent make it difficult to prove defamation by any news outlet. The bar is high. Dominion would have to prove “actual malice,” meaning Fox either knew what it was broadcasting was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
For their part, Fox’s lawyers in the Dominion case argued that the First Amendment protected them and that the hosts were simply making newsworthy claims made by others — Trump and his allies.
“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political campaign in search of a financial windfall, but the real cost will be First Amendment rights,” Fox said in a statement to HuffPost. “While Dominion has pushed misleading and irrelevant information to the headlines, Fox News remains steadfast in protecting the rights of a free press, since a ruling against Dominion and its private equity owners would have severe consequences for the entire journalism profession.”
The trial is expected to last about six weeks.
This is a shared version of article Originally published on HuffPost.