The defamation lawsuit initiated by the manufacturer of Dominion voting machines against the chain foxnews began this Thursday with the selection of the juryin a process that will test the sacrosanct right to freedom of expression in the United States.
The process could be one of the High-profile defamation cases in the United States and threatens to damage the finances and reputation of tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s conservative television network.
The stakes “are very important for Fox News,” Nicole Hemmer, a media historian at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told AFP.
Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News in a Delaware state court in March 2021, seeking $1.6 billion in damages.
Dominion alleges that it promoted the false Donald Trump’s claims that his machines were used to rig the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden, despite allegedly knowing they were untrue.
Dominion alleges that the continuous information chain began to second the account of Trump because he was losing audience after being the first television outlet to declare Biden the victor in Arizona and project that he would win the presidency.
Fox News denies libel and maintains that limited itself to reporting on Trump’s allegationshiding behind the First Amendment that protects freedom of expression.
On March 31, Judge Eric Davis dismissed the chain’s appeals and decided to hold the trial.
The lawyers for the parties began to select the twelve jurors and their twelve alternates from among 300 candidates, according to CNN.
“If found liable for defamation, the chain could face compensation in the neighborhood of $1 billion, which wouldn’t be enough to bankrupt it, but would have real ramifications on his future planning and health. overall financial position,” says Hemmer.
Dominion will have to prove that the chain acted in bad faith, which experts say will not be easy. In another famous case, the 1964 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court sided with the newspaper.
However, Dominion’s lawsuit has already put Fox in trouble as it has exposed emails from its presenters and commentators accused of publicly supporting Trump’s theses despite privately doubting their veracity.
The owner, Rupert Murdoch, 92, acknowledged that some presenters “endorsed” Trump’s claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from him, but denied that it was an order from the network’s management, according to documents filed. to court for Dominion in February.
Court documents also show that the Australian-American tycoon dismissed comments by Trump aides Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell in support of his claims as “really crazy and damaging.”
Dominion’s lawyers have also posted internal Fox News messages from commentators and executives about what they thought of Trump, despite the network’s staunch support, which has accused the complainant of “picking and taking quotes out of context.”
The network has overcome several crises in recent years and last year it was established, for the seventh consecutive year, as the most watched network, well ahead of competitors such as MSNBC and CNN.
Jury selection is expected to conclude this week and the trial proper to begin on Monday.
