Cite this “Intel Brief”
story posted from the Soufan
Center with this story headline (November 4, 2022):
“IntelBrief: Election Libel Suits Could Shake Up Partisan Media
Landscape”
Fact: Fox News is
the GOP’s #1 go-to network to spread all sorts of mis- and disinformation about
the 2020 election until that is they got in big legal trouble and are now
facing huge lawsuit worth billions against them.
· Ongoing lawsuits against Fox News and 2020
election conspiracy purveyors may help blunt excesses of partisan U.S. news
media and highlight the corrosive impacts of disinformation.
· The case could also shed light on Fox’s internal
operations, as plaintiffs capture internal company communications and depose
its biggest on-air personalities and executives.
· The plaintiffs (two major voting machine
companies, Dominion and Smartmatic) are seeking billions of dollars in
compensation.
· The suit comes on the heels of other significant
legal penalties and business losses incurred by media organizations, due in
part to defamation and the deliberate spread of disinformation.
Highlight: Fox News is at the center of a series of lawsuits launched over false allegations made by some of its TV hosts and guests who sought to delegitimize the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
The lawsuits, in which
voting machine companies Dominion and Smartmatic are collectively demanding
more than $5.6 billion in restitution from several conservative news networks
and individuals, will test the degree to which major media companies and public
figures can be held accountable for their role in perpetuating Trump’s “Big
Lie” that he (not Joe Biden) won the 2020 election.
By forcing media companies like Fox to rein in harmful, dishonest,
and incendiary content, the suits could reshape the limits of acceptable
political discourse in an increasingly divisive American media landscape.
Besides Fox News hosts and guests, the plaintiffs are also
pointing fingers at executives, alleging they were complicit in circulating
false narratives that voting machines had been rigged in favor of Joe Biden,
who was officially declared the winner and inaugurated in January 2021.
The Fox case, scheduled to go to trial in April 2023, is
poised to de-mystify one of the world’s most influential political media
organizations and open it to public scrutiny.
Dominion has acquired details of internal conversations
among Fox News personnel and leadership from captured company emails and text
messages.
Moreover, both Dominion and Smartmatic continue to depose
former and current on-screen talent, backstage producers, and boardroom
executives.
High-profile Fox news network stars
like Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and others have already been questioned under oath,
while Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott is expected to face deposition soon.
The case against Fox, according to legal experts, is likely
to hinge on whether the plaintiffs can prove that network decision-makers knew
that the claims they were propagating regarding the election were certainly or
likely false and aired them anyway.
Early evidence shared by the plaintiffs indicates that,
behind the scenes, personnel at multiple levels of the Fox hierarchy expressed
concern or sought to prevent the spread of election lies on their shows.
One news producer warned that Fox host Jeanine Pirro should
not be allowed on-air after she made false claims about manipulated vote
counts, while network executives tried to prevent election-denying
lawyers as well as two prominent Trump legal team members: Sydney
Powell and Rudy Giuliani. Both of whom are also facing their own related billion-dollar
lawsuits by the same two plaintiffs.
Fox News CEO Scott also initially pushed back against the claims,
reportedly saying: “We can’t give the
crazies an inch.”
That was amid criticism
from the Trump campaign and his allies who had turned on Fox News once it
declared Joe Biden’s win in Arizona.
The Soufan Group was founded by Ali Soufan, the
former FBI special agent that I wrote about here in April 2021. He was
man who interrogated and broke Abu Zubaydah without any torture,
harsh treatment, or waterboarding. Note that Zubaydah had been water boarded
some 80 times and did not break – Soufan did it the professional way, and he gained
extremely valuable info regarding Osama bin-Laden
and other al-Qaeda members and their locations, etc.
My 2 Cents: This harsh and well-established GOP ploy of spreading false and misleading information as well as tons of disinformation is not unusual for them.
It dates back in modern times to the days of Lee Atwater, Roger Stone, Newt Gingrich, and today with so many others of that same ilk.
The recent attack on Paul Pelosi is a classic GOP/rightwing stunt spread all over their friendly networks. That story update is here.
Ever since Trump hit the scene and now more so after his “Big Lie” about 2020 being stolen from him, it’s worse than ever.
The GOP and their rightwing supporters use harsh tactics. We all need to make sure that the public knows the truth about their harmful tactics, which are designed to spread mistrust and get new state laws in place to make sure and to ensure that they never lose any future election that their deniers hype now 24/7 about repeating the 2020 mess that they still run with today led mostly by Trump.
As far as Trump is concerned that is the only issue he considers important in the upcoming midterm election and most-certainly for in 2024.
Boy, is he a sore loser and spoiled brat his whole adult life. That coupled with his conning skills - well that's a recipe for disaster across the whole country and now we see and hear it almost every single day.
Thanks for stopping by.
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