Last month, Dominion Voting Systems sued Rudy Giuliani for $1.3 billion for his significant role in the massive, fascist disinformation campaign he waged after Donald Trump lost the election. Giuliani, acting as Trump’s “election lawyer,” went on an Angry Fart tour around the country, throwing conspiracies and lies at everyone. One of the big lies was that Dominion Voting Systems had somehow “rigged” the election, or that they weren’t counting votes properly or something. Anyway, that alone should be really fun as it plays out. This will be fun as well: Smartmatic, a company which provided election technology and support, has now sued Fox News. LMAO.
In the latest volley in the battle over disinformation in the presidential election, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation has been sued by an obscure tech company that has accused his cable networks of defamation and contributing to the fervor that led to the siege of the Capitol.
The suit pits Smartmatic, which provided election technology in one county, against Donald J. Trump’s longtime favorite news outlet and three Fox anchors, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, all ardent supporters of the former president. A trial could reveal how Mr. Trump’s media backers sought to cast doubt on an election that delivered a victory to Joseph R. Biden Jr. and a loss to an incumbent who refused to accept reality.
Filed in New York State Supreme Court, Smartmatic’s suit seeks at least $2.7 billion in damages. In addition to Mr. Murdoch’s Fox Corporation, Fox News and the three star anchors, it targets Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell, lawyers who made the case for election fraud as frequent guests on Fox programs while representing President Trump.
In its 276-page complaint, Smartmatic, which has requested a jury trial, argues that Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell “created a story about Smartmatic” and that “Fox joined the conspiracy to defame and disparage Smartmatic and its election technology and software. The story turned neighbor against neighbor. The story led a mob to attack the U.S. Capitol.”
Smartmatic filed the suit three months after an election repeatedly described as rigged or stolen by Mr. Trump and his supporters. Fox and its upstart competitors Newsmax and OANN gave significant broadcast time to hosts and commentators who argued against the election’s integrity at a time of a rancorous political divide, when conspiratorial notions have moved into the mainstream.
I’m enjoying all of the chickens-coming-home-to-roost about the blatant lies and disinformation campaign which sprang up around the election. Fox News, OANN, Newsmax and all of the Murdoch-owned press outlets need to be financially liable for the dangerous conspiracies they promoted and aired. Sue them into oblivion! Also, this clip went viral earlier this week: the “MyPillow” guy, Mike Lindell, going f–king bonkers on Newsmax about election fraud and one anchor literally walking off-camera to avoid being named in another lawsuit.
Newsmax invites Mike Lindell, who advocated for a coup and spews dangerous conspiracy theories, on air. It didn't go well. pic.twitter.com/6xzSgXlHua
— Jason Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) February 2, 2021
Screencaps courtesy of Fox News.
The right wing media is the worst. They have brainwashed people for 25 years and here we are: millions of people think that the election was stolen or rigged and that “cancel culture” is a bigger problem than the Capitol being stormed by insurrectionists. If there’s a hell, Rupert Murdoch is going there. And he can take Carlson/Hannity/Ingraham/Dobbs/Judge Winebox and Bartiromo along with him.
+1
Well said.
Hope they sue them right off the air.
Agreed!
I don’t know how F*cker Carlson and Hannity escaped being named as they are two of the biggest ones on there spouting all that crap.
Seems like a lifetime ago, Maria Bartiromo was actually a brilliant, RESPECTED financial reporter…and she threw all the respect (public and professional) for Murdock Money. She really DID sell her soul.
When she started out I caught her several times, I thought her intelligent and you could say I would have respected anything that she had to say. I would have never though she would become this. It’s pretty sad to see her go down this path. She’s not the only one though. How do intelligent people become these mindless drones. Crazy!
Not only her but what happened to Kimberly Guilfoyle? She was actually an assistant prosecutor. Now she acts like a coked out, screaming bimbo. Who sexually harasses co-workers on the side,
Good, but Fox is so slimy, they manage to wriggle out of everyone’s grasp and escape the consequences. I’m not too optimistic, although I want to be.
Fox has settled a lot of lawsuits in recent years. They haven’t been wriggling out for a while. My question is how many more of these large suits can they afford to pay out? Profits are falling and legal fees keep rising.
I honestly don’t see how they can get out of this. Seems pretty rock-solid to me, but I hope all the Celebitches Esq. chime in!
Finally. These people and news organizations have been getting away with saying the most bonkers sh!t for years now, and I love that these voting companies are like, nope, not today.
Fox is about to learn when you play stupid games you win stupid prizes. I hope Smartmantic gets a televised jury trial.
“…when you play stupid games you win stupid prizes”
LOL I LOVE that!!! Brilliant! (Gonna “borrow” it, if you don’t mind!)
Looking forward to the future ascendancy of the Smartmatic News Network, the Dominion Pillow Company, and the E. Jean Carroll Maralago Resort.
Hahaha, right. Truthfully, I doubt we will see justice in terms of Trump’s senate trial or the GOP course correcting the direction the party is going in (they’re already gone), but I am a little hopeful Dominion and Smartmatic might see some justice here.
That video – my god. They’re trying to set the guy up with airtime to argue that his Twitter ban should only be temporary not permanent and he literally cannot shut up and stop spewing the lies and conspiracies that led to his ban.
On a related note I am kind of dreading when my in-laws can come visit us again and want to sit on our couch watching Fox News not interacting with the children they are purportedly there to visit. Was considering playing the “no screen time in front of the kids” card but there is a language barrier and they probably won’t understand that. Help!
Play that card. Tell your husband to say it or write it in their language and place the sign over the TV so that you aren’t having to police it. If you already limit screen time, the kids will accept it.
It’s your house. Your rules. I’m rooting for you, Kate!
Your house your rules! You got this Kate
I’d set up child lock controls on my TV and block Fox News. Done.
Hell yes to child locks/ blocking Fox – if they are there to see you and the kids, then why would they even be watching TV? A little enforced detox (deFox?) might be good for everyone!
yup, your house! Disconnect the whole thing if you want to. If it causes you stress, you have the power to say no.
yeah, what SofiasSideEye said.
parental locks so Fox News Channel cannot be viewed AT ALL on your TV. Maybe that’ll be enough for them to get a hotel room and you won’t have to deal with them much at all.
Take it out of the lineup of your channel list. If they ask why, just say cable’s gotten too expensive, and ¯_(ツ)_/¯
I took it out of ALL of the DVRs in the house when I weaned my dad off Faux. Took out the “news” (ha!) AND the “business” channels. What I ALSO did, which you MAY want to try, is made up a “custom” channel list of “channels I get”, so he couldn’t even punch in the channel numbers into the remote to get it on the tv. Yeah…I was a b*tch, but I love my dad and couldn’t stomach what he was internalizing. Took me about 18 mos. of CNN, MSNBC, and a LOT of talking to him about politics. Got him reregistered as a Dem, and is as Blue as I am!
This is wonderful! I think you need to share your method far and wide!
You shero, you! Sophiassideeye is making me want to do that at my in-law’s house!
I want to believe that these types of lawsuits will save our democracy and reverse the misinformation, but I’m starting to think that our democracy is just doomed, slowly crumbling. There is an article in The NY Times about Michael Goldhaber, a professor who predicted all of this in the 1980s, and how he understood that the internet would make us an “attention economy” that would overpower rational, cause and effect type of thinking, that we would all be dumbed down. It was happening back then when Fox News started it, but it was inevitable because of the ability to self-select information. Rupert Murdoch understood what human nature is, and the internet helped people self-select the reality they wanted to believe, like seeing lights in darkness, and human nature is to be drawn in. Trump and FOX are symptoms, not the cause.
I now feel bad for leaving a child in this. I don’t think that we can survive it without heavy regulation of the internet, and I don’t think that we have the political will to do that. Knowledge is relative to experience, but science is a shared set of facts. We no longer have a three to link all of our different cultures if science is discredited the way that the internet allows free dissemination of conspiracy over fact.
I googled this and read the article. That is really quite interesting. Chilling too.
It is chilling.
You stated “This will be fun as well: Smartmatic, a company which provided election technology and support, has now sued Fox News. LMAO.”
It’s actually an even bigger laugh than that. The only jurisdiction in the ENTIRE COUNTRY for which Smartmatic provided election technology and support was LA County- a blue county in a blue state. The ONLY place. I read the first 68 pages of the complaint and that little factlet first shows up on page 11 in case anyone cares to check it out.
These people are pathetic. Normally these cases are hard to win as you have to prove actual malice. This one is def winnable.
Thanks for this! I want them bankrupt! They need to dissolve. I cannot believe (well, actually I can, they’re the head racist country) the UK, already knowing how damaging the DM/Sun/Telegraph has been, are inviting a FOX news network to set up shop in the UK. Talk about terrible decisions.
Loved their opening statement in their pleading: the earth is round, 2+2=4
At this point, election companies are going to extract a much heavier price in lawsuits than the senate ever will with impeachment, so why not? If I were an election official I might also want my day in court -some of them reportedly got death threats.
Companies that are spreading lies to make a buck should be held accountable in a court of law. The victims of Coup on Jan 6, Sandy Hook, Parkland and other families that were damage/harm by baseless lies should also held those accountable in a court of law.
Is it me, or is Maria Bartiromo always super-blurred on Fox? I never watch Fox but in the past few weeks I’ve seen some clips, and it looks like they have her so heavily filtered she’s practically a hologram,
*laughs maniacally*
I have no other comment. 😂🤣
I had to put a ban on Fox News et all.. when they come to my house. I respect them enough to not watch my CNN in front of them. Have you tried the translation apps on your phone? Throw the no screen time around the kids and plan activities they can do together. If the Fox comes on around me it like somebody threw gas on me and lit a match – it is unbearable.
Sue them all. They are garbage!
And then Lou Dobbs got CANCELLED.