Murdochs Allegedly Endorsed Fox News Strategy to Broadcast 2020 Voting Fraud Allegations, Court Hears.
In a key legal proceeding on Tuesday, a attorney for the voting technology firm Smartmatic contended that senior leaders at Fox News, including Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, sanctioned a conscious strategy to embrace false claims of voting fraud championed by Donald Trump.
“Their core viewers, their primary audience, abandoned them,” declared J Erik Connolly, the company's attorney. “What was their response? They return back to what they know best: they return back to misinformation, political propaganda and xenophobia. The election narrative and the election fraud claims was the perfect tool for them to return to their core messaging.”
A Multi-Billion Dollar Libel Lawsuit Is at Stake
During courtroom presentations, both sides pleaded with the New York state supreme court judge David B Cohen to rule on critical aspects of Smartmatic's $2.7 billion legal action ahead of a potential trial in the coming year. The plaintiff maintains that Fox executives hatched a plan to “shift” to the former president's allegations to recapture angry viewers.
The Network's Strong Denial
A lawyer for Fox News, speaking for the network, vigorously denied these accusations. “No campaign of misinformation was ordered,” he said. “It is completely false. The evidence does not support it. It is hogwash. It is made up by lawyers on the other side.”
He further asserted that the Murdochs, who held ultimate control over the network, “issued no directives to cover Smartmatic or the election fraud allegations.”
The Central Legal Hurdle: Proving “Knowing Falsity”
To win its case, the voting firm will have to demonstrate that key figures at Fox News knew the fraud claims were false but permitted them to be broadcast anyway. Through legal motions, Smartmatic has pointed to private messages showing hosts like Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo expressing doubt about the claims while also showing an interest to assist Trump.
Allen, Fox's lawyer argued that Smartmatic has “wildly inflated” its value and the projected financial losses from the broadcasts. Fox contends its personalities were merely reporting on newsworthy claims from the president's associates, not endorsing them.
“This suit really isn't about Fox's reporting of the 2020 election,” the Fox lawyer stated. “It's about Smartmatic's effort to seize on remarks made by the president's lawyers to salvage its business viability.”
A Precedent Looms Large
Smartmatic's case strongly resemble the successful defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox. In that case, a judge's pre-trial rulings were decisive, finding that Fox's broadcasts were false and defamatory per se.
That legal decision was later cited as a major reason in Fox's choice to resolve with Dominion for $787.5 million. A former Fox legal officer noted that the judge's pre-trial rulings had “hamstrung” the company's ability to defend itself at trial.
The Judge's Stance
Judge Cohen gave no clear indications of his thinking but informed Smartmatic's lawyer that proving “knowledge of falsity” for a pre-trial ruling would be a “difficult task.” He stated he intended to examine all pertinent broadcasts before issuing his rulings.
“I think I have more than enough material, data, legal briefs, diagrams, graphs and all I need to make my ruling,” he told the parties in the case.