NEW YORK (AP) — A voting tech company suing Fox News is arguing that Fox Corp. leaders Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch played a leading role in airing false claims that the technology helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from former President Donald Trump.
Smartmatic said the Murdochs, as the ultimate authorities at the network’s corporate parent, “directed Fox News Network to embrace disinformation following the 2020 U.S. election as a business decision.”
“Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch were front and center in the decision to cover and facilitate the disinformation campaign published by Fox News after the 2020 U.S. election,” Smartmatic said in its Monday filing, part of its defamation case against the top-rated conservative network.
Only 25 | Get Access to Your Trusted Source for Local News
Fox News and Fox Corp. did not immediately return messages sent Tuesday seeking comment on the claims, which are based on news reports and filings in a separate defamation case against the network by a voting machine manufacturer, Dominion Voting Systems.
In a recently unsealed filing in the Dominion case, Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that he didn't stop various Fox News commentators from promoting unfounded claims from Trump allies that the election was stolen, even though he could have. He also acknowledged that some of the network's hosts — Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity — at times endorsed the false claims.
Some of the networks biggest stars also...
stage at the Ninth Circuit, where pharmaceutical companies say a momentous new ruling "illustrates perfectly" the constitutional concerns of U. S. Supreme Court justices regarding FCA enforcement. ...