After Joe Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election, several hosts at Fox News, the powerful network that feeds the pulse of America’s conservatives, aired outlandish and false claims about the vote. Many of them had to do with Dominion, a voting equipment company founded in 2003 that most Americans had never heard of.
Over and over again, the network aired the lie that Dominion machines rigged the election and were flipping votes. It aired the lie that the company was founded in Venezuela to rig elections for dictator Hugo Chávez. And it aired the lie that Dominion had bribed government officials to use its machines.
None of those claims were true and Fox hosts, producers and top executives knew it. A stunning trove of internal communications obtained by Dominion shows there was widespread disbelief at the company; everyone from Fox’s CEO, Rupert Murdoch, to top hosts such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson knew the claims were untrue, even as the network continued to air them to millions of Americans.
Those messages and the claims are now at the center of a blockbuster six-week jury trial set to begin on Monday in Wilmington, Delaware, where Fox is incorporated. Dominion is suing Fox News and its parent company Fox Corporation for defamation, seeking at least $1.6bn it says it is due to cover the reputational damage it suffered as a result of Fox’s lies. The jury could also choose to impose additional punitive damages.
The trial is seen as one of...
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