One of the most-watched media trials in decades gets under way on Tuesday, after a delay, as Fox News, and potentially Rupert Murdoch, find themselves forced to reckon with the channel’s airing of false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential race.
Dominion Voting Systems, which provided election machines to 28 states in the 2020 presidential election, claims Fox News damaged its business when it aired conspiracy theories that those machines were used to rig the election in favor of Joe Biden.
Fox News, and its parent company Fox Corporation, say the channel’s coverage of the 2020 election conspiracy theories is protected by free speech, as outlined in the first amendment of the US constitution. They say their reporters and hosts were reporting on “newsworthy allegations”. The company also says Dominion’s claim of $1.6bn in damages is too high.
The case took an unprecedented turn in February, when internal messages sent by Fox News employees and executives, published as part of the lawsuit, revealed that people inside the news organization did not believe some of the election fraud claims the channel was airing.
The trial begins on Tuesday 18 April, in Wilmington, Delaware. It is scheduled to last five weeks, and could see Murdoch, arguably the most powerful media figure in the world, give evidence in court.
How did we get here?
In the wake of the election, Donald Trump and his aides, acolytes and supporters made a number of different, and all false, claims of election fraud. One of those was that voting machines, many of which were made by Dominion Voting Systems, had been used to transfer votes from Trump to Biden.
In the weeks and months following the election, Fox News repeatedly aired these untrue allegations about Dominion.
In March 2021, Dominion sued Fox News, alleging that the channel had defamed it in broadcasting the voting machine lies.
Fox News hosted Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, who had both acted in some capacity for Trump, and who both repeated the conspiracy theories about Dominion. Dominion also claims that the Fox News hosts Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs, who has since left the network, had “endorsed and repeated” Powell’s and Giuliani’s lies.
In March, the superior court judge Eric Davis ruled that it was “crystal clear” that none of the allegations made by Trump allies on Fox in the weeks after the election were true, and said the case should go to trial.
Who could testify?
The headline act could be Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old chairman of Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News. Murdoch is also executive chairman of Fox News.
On 4 April Davis, who is hearing the case, said Dominion is allowed to force both Murdoch and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, to testify in the case. Dominion has previously said it will call both men; Fox had tried to prevent the Murdochs from having to appear.
Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity – Fox News’s most-watched and highest-profile hosts – are also scheduled to testify in court. Dominion has said it will also compel Bartiromo, Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro to appear.
Bartiromo and Pirro hosted Sidney Powell, who told Bartiromo in one broadcast – falsely – that Dominion machines were “flipping votes in the computer system or adding votes that did not exist”.
What has happened so far?
A standout moment came in February, when emails and text messages sent by Fox News employees and executives were published as part of the litigation process.
Those messages showed that many Fox executives and on-air hosts did not believe the claims but broadcast them anyway.
In one message, Carlson said Powell was “lying” in her claims about Dominion, while Laura Ingraham, a fellow Fox News host, described Powell as “a complete nut”. In other messages, Fox News executives described the conspiracy theories the channel was airing as “mind-blowingly nuts”, “totally off the rails” and “completely BS”.
In a deposition in the lawsuit, Murdoch said that Fox News hosts had “endorsed” the false narrative promoted by Trump.
Dominion lawyers hope this contradiction between what Fox News was airing and what its staff knew behind the scenes will meet the “actual malice” standard to win a defamation case.
What is Dominion claiming?
Dominion says at least 20 customers terminated or declined to renew their contracts with the company following the 2020 election. It says it lost business opportunities with another 39 election jurisdictions as a result of Fox’s coverage.
The company is seeking $1.6bn in damages: it claims it sustained $921m in damage to its overall value as a business, in addition to $88m in lost profits. It is also seeking $600m in lost future profits, along with an unspecified amount of punitive damages to be determined by a jury.
What is Fox saying?
Fox News and Fox Corporation say the allegations the channel aired regarding Dominion were newsworthy. They say the multiple statements made on Fox News are protected by the first amendment.
The companies also contend Dominion’s business was not damaged to the extent it claims. Fox has argued in court filings that Dominion’s damages estimate is “fanciful” and based on “faulty assumptions”.
“Dominion’s lawsuit is a political crusade in search of a financial windfall, but the real cost would be cherished first amendment rights,” Fox said in a statement.
“While Dominion has pushed irrelevant and misleading information to generate headlines, Fox News remains steadfast in protecting the rights of a free press, given a verdict for Dominion and its private equity owners would have grave consequences for the entire journalism profession.”
Why hasn’t Fox settled?
It is still possible for Fox to settle this case. In the past, Fox and Murdoch have settled – ie reached an agreement over damages, and paid them – plenty of lawsuits before they went to trial.
In fact, Fox Corporation settled a defamation lawsuit related to election conspiracy theories earlier in April. In that case Majed Khalil, a Venezuelan businessman, had sued the outlet and Dobbs, arguing that they had fabricated claims he and other Venezuelans were involved in “orchestrating a nonexistent scheme to rig or fix the election”.
A settlement could potentially prevent the internal messages from being released, avoiding the embarrassment and the reputational damage Fox News has already suffered.
The Washington Post reported that lawyers from both sides met in late 2022 to attempt to iron out their differences, but the talks broke down. According to the Post, the amount of the damages Dominion is claiming and the potential embarrassment to Fox of being forced to publicly apologize have been stumbling blocks.
