Fox News’ defamation trial will force it into the 'true No Spin Zone': media reporter

When Bill O’Reilly was hosting "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, he often referred to his program as "The No-Spin Zone" — which his critics found ironic, arguing that O'Reilly was feeding his audience nothing but spin. O'Reilly would open the program by telling viewers, "Caution! You are about to enter the No-Spin Zone."

"The O'Reilly Factor" aired on Fox News from 1996-2017, and Fox News fired O'Reilly after deciding that the sexual harassment allegations against him had become a liability for the right-wing cable news outlet. O'Reilly has been gone from Fox News for six years, but the channel has many other hosts who are no less controversial — from Tucker Carlson to Jeanine Pirro to Laura Ingraham. And Fox News is facing a $1.6 billion dollar defamation lawsuit from Domination Voting Systems, which alleges that it defamed the company in late 2020/early 2021 by promoting the false, thoroughly debunked claim that its voting equipment was used to help now-President Joe Biden steal the 2020 presidential election from then-President Donald Trump.

The case Dominion v. Fox News Network is schedule to go to trial in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday, April 17. In an op-ed published on April 14, CNN's Oliver Darcy argues that when the trial begins, Fox News really will be entering a "No-Spin Zone."

"When I watched Fox News broadcast election lies in the aftermath of the 2020 election," Darcy notes, "never did I expect the network to be held accountable in a meaningful way. I've covered Fox News for a while now. I've watched thousands and thousands of hours of the right-wing channel's programming. I've seen its hosts, over the years, undermine public health, make gross anti-immigrant remarks, peddle lies and propaganda and push deranged conspiracy theories that were once reserved for the right-wing's furthest fringes. The network has always seemed to find a way to sail through the controversy, even the most hellish storms it has faced. Sometimes, it has emerged even stronger and more emboldened than before."

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Darcy continues, "But this time is different. This time, the normal tricks the network turns to during times of crisis will not free it from trouble. This time, in a court of law, the network will need to put forward an honest, fact-driven argument. Fox News is about to enter the true No Spin Zone, where deception is strictly prohibited — where it is not in charge. And where its top executives like Rupert Murdoch and Suzanne Scott and hosts like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity cannot simply ignore a request for comment and resort to, instead, attacking 'the media' on-air."

Under the standard that the U.S. Supreme Court laid down 59 years ago in 1964’s New York Times v. Sullivan, defamation is very difficult to prove. The plaintiff must show "actual malice" on the part of the defendant, and that is what Dominion needs to show in its defamation lawsuits against Fox News and others. Dominion is also suing attorney Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and two Fox News competitors — Newsmax TV and One America News (OAN) — for promoting false claims about the company.

But Dominion certainly has plenty of evidence in its lawsuit against Fox News, including text messages and e-mails showing that its employees knew that the Big Lie was total nonsense but promoted it anyway.

Judge Eric Davis' Delaware courtroom, Darcy stresses, is a radically different environment from Fox News' broadcasts.

"In this setting, where lies cannot be casually told and truth cannot be distorted beyond reality to fit a dishonest narrative, it will be fascinating to see how the network fares," the CNN journalist argues. "If the pre-trial hearings are any indicator, it won't be pretty. The case hasn't even started, and the presiding judge has already lost his patience with Fox's legal team and put them on notice. Perhaps the winds will shift for Fox News when the judge gavels in the trial on Monday, but if they play out like the last few weeks of court have, Fox News is in for a brutal ride."