Voting machine company, Smartmatic, has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox news. Smartmatic brought the suit against Fox News, its hosts Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, former host Lou Dobbs, Powell and ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Fox News is accused of purposefully running false information about Smartmatic and questioning election integrity in order to increase viewers.
Though Fox News requested the lawsuit be dismissed, a judge ordered that it can stand, based on comments by Tucker Carlson.
What Did Tucker Carlson Say?
Carlson had denounced conspiracy theories perpetuated by Sidney Powell, who accused Smartmatic of rigging the 2020 election, on his show even though other Fox News hosts aired those claims.
Because Sydney Powell never provided the evidence of election fraud as requested by Carlson, and President Trump's campaign advised Carlson that it knew of no such evidence, Fox News perpetuated Powell’s conspiracy, tarnishing the Smartmatic business name, while knowing it had no basis.
Fox News is accused of purposely ignoring the efforts of its most prominent anchor to obtain substantiation of claims of wrongdoing in order to perpetuate a narrative they anticipated to drive high traffic and viewers.
“Ironically, the statements of Tucker Carlson, perhaps the most popular Fox News host, militate most strongly in favor of a possible finding that there is a substantial basis that Fox News acted with actual malice," New York State Supreme Court Judge David Cohen wrote in the opinion.
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