'I'd feel queasy': Former prosecutor says Fox News headed for 'full-blown journalistic and legal disaster'
Fox News faces jury selection this week in the landmark $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, which alleges the network maliciously spread lies about the electoral process and about the security and legitimacy of Dominion's election equipment.
The network maintains it has not engaged in defamation. But given the publicly available evidence, they will have an unusually hard time defending their case, argued former federal prosecutor Elie Honig on CNN Tuesday.
"We've already seen so many of these damaging texts and emails from Fox executives and hosts in the case, in which they acknowledge that the nonsense they were putting on their air and putting guests on their air sharing, they knew to be false," said anchor Jake Tapper. "If you were a Fox attorney defending Fox, how would you feel going into jury selection this week about your case?"
"I'd feel queasy, Jake," said Honig. "I would not want to be in the position of defending Fox here. I think they're headed for a full-blown journalistic and legal disaster. It is very difficult to successfully sue a media outlet for defamation in this country. What you have to prove is what we call 'actual malice,' meaning the statements were false, and the defendant made those statements knowingly or with reckless disregard of the truth. Now, that's a very high bar. But here, we have Fox's own texts in black and white, where they call the election fraud claims, and I quote, 'nuts,' 'insane,' 'BS,' and so you contrast that with the things that Fox said on air, and I think Fox is in a very difficult position here."
"The judge granted partial summary judgment to Dominion in this case," said Tapper. "What does that mean? How significant is it?"
"Well, that's a big win for Dominion, because the judge has now ruled as a matter of law," said Honig. "In fact, these statements about election fraud were false. That's not even going to the jury, so the judge will tell the jury, I instruct you, jury, these statements were false, your only job is to decide that actual malice question. Did Fox know or were they reckless? And so, with that ruling, Dominion's really halfway to where they need to get."
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