Fox News faces trial for false election rigging claims

The long-awaited trial of the American channel Fox News, accused by an electronic voting machine company of having propagated the false thesis of a rigged presidential election in 2020, must get into the heart of the matter on Tuesday. Unless a last minute agreement is reached with the complainant.

After the selection of the jury, the preliminary arguments of the two camps were scheduled for Monday, but Judge Eric Davis postponed the proceedings for a day, to Tuesday, before the superior court of the State of Delaware, in Wilmington.

No motive was given, but according to the Wall Street Journal, owned like Fox News by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, “Fox pushed at the last moment to settle its dispute with Dominion Voting Systems.” .

Whatever the financial terms, a deal would save the conservative favorite channel, its parent company Fox Corporation and the Murdoch family from facing “the libel trial of the century” as the New York Times dubbed it on Monday. And to Rupert Murdoch, 92, the prospect of possibly having to testify on the stand.

– “The mean one” –

A trial will be closely followed in the United States, where it is seen as a test for the limits of freedom of expression, guaranteed by the first amendment of the Constitution, as well as for the fight against misinformation.

In total, the company Dominion Voting Systems, which operated in 28 states during the 2020 election, is claiming $ 1.6 billion in damages before this civil court.

A staggering sum but up to the damage according to the company for having been presented on the most watched American cable channel as “the villain” of a “fabricated story” after the presidential election of November 2020 lost by Donald Trump, she wrote in her complaint.

In a tense atmosphere, the Republican accused the Biden camp of fraud of all kinds without proof. And his advisers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, pointed almost daily to Dominion on Fox News sets.

During the preparatory phase, judge Eric Davis ruled “clear as rock water that no assertion about Dominion in the 2020 election (was) true”. Dominion points to twenty excerpts that it considers defamatory.

But the company will have to establish a willful intent to lie at Fox News and the jury will have to reach a unanimous verdict for a conviction.

– “Really crazy” –

A must in the conservative camp, and regularly accused of echoing conspiracy theories, Fox News is playing big and wants to make the trial an emblematic case for freedom of the press.

For the chain, it was legitimate to give the floor to the Trump camp when it contested the vote and “essential for the search for the truth” to let all parties express themselves.

But the procedure has already given rise to an embarrassing unpacking for Fox, its stars and its leaders, with the publication of exchanges of emails or text messages showing that within the chain and its parent company Fox Corporation, no one believed little to the scenario of a rigged election.

A “really crazy thing. And damaging”, wrote on November 19, 2020 the big boss, Rupert Murdoch, in an email titled “watching Giuliani!”, to the boss of Fox News, Suzanne Scott.

The numerous messages, obtained within the framework of the procedure and also emanating from stars of the channel, such as Tucker Carlson or Laura Ingraham, are at the heart of the plaintiff’s argument, according to which Fox News was lying on purpose, so as not to lose its viewers won over to Donald Trump.

“We have to fire her,” Tucker Carlson also said, upon seeing a tweet from a journalist from the chain sweeping away the accusations of fraud.

“It’s hurting the business considerably. The stock price is down. It’s not a joke,” he added.

Fox News accuses Dominion Voting Systems of having made a truncated and biased selection of messages.

The trial, if it takes place, must be concluded at the end of May.