-Dominion voting system is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion
in a case that could have far-reaching implications
within media, journalism, and the law.
The case is taking us behind the curtain of the news giant.
-Dominion says that Fox News
was airing these false election claims on its airwaves
in part because it was motivated by profit.
Dominion Voting Systems alleges that Fox was worried
about losing viewers to the right of its network
and that it purposefully aired these false election claims
to placate a Trump-loving audience
that was fleeing its network.
-The president's lawyers alleging a company
called Dominion -- a backdoor is capable of flipping votes.
-I know that there were voting irregularities.
Tell me about that.
-It's very difficult to get a handle
on just who owns what and how they're being operated.
-So, we rarely see defamation lawsuits
brought by public figures
against media companies go this far.
It's really hard to win these sorts of cases
because public figures have to basically meet
this legal standard called "actual malice."
It's a really high legal standard to prove.
-Actual malice is defined as knowledge
that a statement made was false
or with reckless disregard for the truth.
-That "actual malice" standard is from a case
called "New York Times versus Sullivan."
It's intentionally a really high standard,
and it's meant so that entities like media entities
that might be sued for defamation
have some breathing space in order to do reporting
and occasionally make mistakes in those situations,
unintentional ones.
-Dominion believes they have proof actual malice
was committed by Fox News.
Among the many revelations made in court documents,
internal messages reveal on-air personalities
privately expressed deep skepticism
over election-fraud claims
while the network was still airing them.
That same skepticism was shared by the company's CEO,
Rupert Murdoch.
-Fox is saying that it does have protection
as a news outlet against this suit from Dominion.
So, its arguments,
its defenses focus around the First Amendment.
And what Fox is saying is that what we were reporting on here
was incredibly newsworthy.
These were allegations that were being made
by the president in the wake of the 2020 election
and that we have a right as a news company
to be reporting and a duty
to be reporting on newsworthy events
in the wake of this election.
-We are just continuing to be inundated
by evidence of all the frauds here
and every manner and means of fraud
you could possibly think of.
-In contrast, Dominion has said,
"You weren't just airing allegations from the public.
"You were endorsing and promoting lies,
"facts, not just allegations.
"And because of that, this newsworthiness privilege
does not apply to you."
-The case has implications
regardless of who comes out the winner,
A Fox win could call into question
whether it's possible ever for a plaintiff
to win a defamation suit against a media entity,
which can inspire efforts legislatively
or judicially to curb some of those journalistic protections
made standard by "The New York Times versus Sullivan" case.
Some justices on the Supreme Court have signaled
they're open to revisiting that precedent.
-In particular, Justice Thomas has critiqued the standard,
Justice Gorsuch has critiqued the standard and suggested
that maybe we need to revisit them.
And so, there's some question about
if Fox wins this case, again,
there might be a belief that no media entity,
that media entities just generally are immune
to these kinds of suits.
-Fox News is the most-watched cable network in the country,
and it has been for a long time.
It's an extremely important and powerful entity
within Republican politics and the conservative movement.
Paying close attention to this could tell us something
about the direction of the company.
But that also means it could tell us
something about the direction of GOP politics
and what's going to happen in 2024.
And so, the implications are really far-reaching.
-In addition to the Dominion lawsuit,
Fox is facing a separate $2.7 billion lawsuit
against Smartmatic USA,
a rival electronic voting-system company.
While some predict a settlement will be made,
efforts to reach an agreement
with Dominion have so far been unsuccessful.
The case is moving to trial with many of the network's
most notable hosts set to testify.