Over two years after the 2020 election, Fox News is still fueling the fire. Fox News is a juggernaut when it comes to conservative or Republican news sources– but it is not always considered a reliable source. After Republican Donald Trump lost the election to President Biden, Trump and Republicans began conspiring against Dominion Voting Systems, the company that supplies the technology for voting in the United States. Fox News aired false claims that the Dominion was stealing votes from Trump and rigging the voting systems in favor of Democratic candidate Joe Biden. In March of 2021, Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News for the lies spread about their involvement in election fraud.

Two years later, in March of 2023, the lawsuit regained attention from newly released information from Dominion court documents. On February 27, new evidence stated that Rupert Murdoch, Fox News’ controlling owner, was fully aware that Fox was spreading lies during the 2020 election but chose not to take any action. When under oath in sworn questioning, Murdoch was asked if he believed the 2020 presidential election was free and fair, to which he said, “yes … the election was not stolen.”

In response to Dominion, Fox lawyers said “this effort to publicly smear a media organization just for having the temerity to cover and comment on allegations being pressed by the sitting President of the United States should be now recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.” However, threats and harm are not protected under the First Amendment. Dominion is filing a defamation lawsuit, meaning that Fox News has damaged its reputation considerably. 

Recently, on Monday, March 20, Fox News producer Abby Grossberg filed lawsuits against the company for pressuring her to give deceptive testimony for the Dominion/Fox News lawsuit and the sexism she experienced while working for Fox. She claims that the lawyers for Fox News had coerced her before her deposition in September not to call out any prominent Fox News men and for her and fellow host Maria Bartiromo to take any blame. That same afternoon, Fox filed their own lawsuit against Grossberg and placed her on forced administrative leave.

The Dominion/Fox News lawsuit is confirmed to go to a jury trial this April.

Texts and emails were released to the public from Dominion on March 7. Text messages include popular Fox host Tucker Carlson texting a colleague on January 4, 2021, two days before the notorious January 6 riot.

“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait.”

“I hate him passionately.”

With Carlson typically going to great lengths to support the Republican party and also contributed to the election fraud conspiracy, these private messages criticizing Trump were highly paradoxical.

Carlson added to the controversy when he released never-seen-before security footage of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Trump supporters initiated this attack on the US Capitol to overturn the election and stop the vote count in an attempt to prevent President Biden from winning the election. Supporters believed that the election was stolen from Trump through voter fraud, connecting back to Fox News’ false claims and the Dominion Voting System. Carlson picked from over 40,000 hours of footage provided by Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy to use as defense for the claim that the Trump riot was “mostly peaceful chaos.” Carlson also said, “very little about January 6 was organized or violent.”

This attack resulted in four rioters dying at the scene, roughly 140 police officers injured, and five police officers dying within days and months after the riot- four of which were suicide.

Representative Bennie Thompson, former chairman of the January 6 panel, criticized McCarthy for sharing the footage with Carlson in a statement: “Despite repeated warnings as to the sensitive nature of this footage, the Speaker decided it was more important to give in to a Fox host who spews lies and propaganda than to protect the Capitol and the police, members, and staff that serve in it,” said Thompson.

TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read)

Fox News is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems over false claims about their involvement in election fraud during the 2020 US presidential election. New evidence suggests that Rupert Murdoch, Fox News’ controlling owner, was aware of the false claims but chose not to take action. Additionally, Fox News producer Abby Grossberg filed a lawsuit against the company for pressuring her to give deceptive testimony and the sexism she experienced. Fox News host Tucker Carlson leaked unseen footage from the January 6 Capitol attack with the controversial statement that the attack was “mostly peaceful chaos.” The Fox/Dominion lawsuit is set to go to a jury trial in April.