This Tuesday, Fox News and right wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch will begin to face the consequences of his network's deceitful propagandizing on behalf of the Malignant Loser. Lawyers representing Dominion Voting Systems will depose Murdoch as part of their $1.6 billion litigation for defamation over the network's false statements that their voting machines were fixed to switch votes from Trump to President Biden. From the Guardian's report:
"Dominion Voting Systems is suing the cable news station and its Murdoch-owned parent company, Fox Corp, for $1.6bn (£1.3bn) over repeated claims that it rigged its voting machines as part of a conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump.
The suit shines a spotlight on Fox News’ part in promoting Trump’s 'stop the steal' campaign and its hand in driving the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. But legal experts say that Dominion, which supplied voting machines to 28 states, appears to be building a wider case that Fox News has a long history of misinformation and steamrolling facts that do not fit its editorial line.
Over the past few months, Dominion’s lawyers have been working their way up the tree of Fox News producers, executives and presenters with interrogations under oath about the network’s work culture and its weeks of conspiratorial, and at times outlandish, claims about Trump’s defeat. On Monday, lawyers deposed Murdoch’s eldest son, presumed successor and Fox Corp CEO, Lachlan.
Now, Dominion has reached the top of the tree. Months of accumulated testimony are expected to put Murdoch, the chair of Fox Corp, in the difficult position of either having to deny he has control over what happens at his most influential US news operation or defend its campaign to promote the biggest lie in US electoral history." (our emphasis)
Murdoch's international right-wing media network is used to presenting opinion and outright lies as "news," but this is perhaps the first time there's been a major financial threat to its bottom line. Dominion has ample video evidence that the outrageous "stop the steal" lie was pushed after the November 2020 elections to stir up opposition to Biden's inauguration, culminating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Fox propagandists including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeanne Pirro and other wingnuts were the megaphone for the defamatory statements about Dominion's machines, and were deposed earlier this year.
(photo: "Kneel before your Dear Leader, Rupert!" Carlo Allegri / Reuters)
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