Filings in Smartmatic's lawsuit reveal that Fox hosts privately doubted election fraud claims while suggesting those claims would boost ratings if promoted aggressively. Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit alleging Fox falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 election, damaging reputation and exposing employees to death threats and harassment. The lawsuit parallels Dominion's defamation case, which settled for $787.5 million after discovery exposed internal Fox communications acknowledging the falsity of fraud claims. Smartmatic has sought to unredact internal materials, with The New York Times intervening to support transparency against Fox's preference for secrecy.
The latest filings in Smartmatic's lawsuit against Fox News revealed that host Jesse Watters did not believe the election fraud claims but still texted his colleague Greg Gutfeld to say he thought Fox would get incredible ratings if they went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL. In 2021, Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox, alleging that the network's coverage falsely accused the voting technology company of committing fraud in the 2020 election to steal the victory from President Donald Trump
Discovery in the Dominion case revealed a trove of emails, text messages, and other communications between the network's executives and on-air personalities admitting they knew the election fraud claims were false, mocking Trump's attorneys and surrogates as crazy for pushing them, and fretting about falling in the ratings to upstart competitors like Newsmax and OANN if they didn't indulge MAGA viewers.
Likewise, the Smartmatic case has unearthed another pile of embarrassing and incriminating internal communications from Fox, some of which were included in a redacted motion filed in June. Smartmatic, supported by a motion to intervene successfully filed by The New York Times, has pushed for these redactions to be reduced, if not eliminated, arguing that it was important for fairness and transparency, as a spokesperson for the company told Mediaite earlier this month.
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