"The allegations carry a familiar ring: Fox News aired outrageous lies that an election software company rigged votes in the 2020 presidential elections for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Behind the scenes, Fox News' controlling owners, executives and biggest stars didn't believe the wild claims from President Trump and his allies. Nonetheless, the voting tech company's officials received death threats. Its reputation and financial prospects were badly damaged."
"These claims are contained in legal filings at the heart of a hearing that will take place in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday afternoon over whether a multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News should be allowed to proceed to a full jury trial. The lawsuit is being brought by Smartmatic, a London-based voting technology firm that played a limited role in the 2020 race but was, nonetheless, accused on Fox shows of taking votes away from Trump and throwing them to Biden."
"Fox News stars and their on-air guests also blamed that company for Trump's loss, as they served up a stew of baseless conspiracy theories about the election. In both the Dominion and Smartmatic suits, Fox's top hosts and executives were revealed to have desperately sought to appease the network's pro-Trump viewers. Viewers peeled away from Fox in droves after it became the first major U.S network to project that Biden would prevail in the key state of Arizona on election night in 2020."
Fox News aired false claims that Smartmatic rigged votes in the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden, prompting death threats and serious reputational and financial harm to the company. Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit in Manhattan seeking to proceed to a jury trial. The allegations mirror claims in a separate Dominion Voting Systems suit that resulted in a $787.5 million payment by Fox. Court filings show Fox hosts and executives privately doubted the allegations while publicly airing and amplifying them, and network efforts sought to appease pro-Trump viewers amid audience defections after election projections.
Read at www.npr.org
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