The co-hosts of ABC’s “The View” took up the topic of Fox News coverage during a recent show — specifically its coverage of former President Donald Trump’s false assertions that the 2020 election was fraudulent and its reports about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked why Fox’s coverage isn’t considered tantamount to “recruiting” and “radicalizing.”
“To me, this should be against the law,” Goldberg said March 8. “You should not be able to lie to the American people knowingly. And, you know, it’s one thing if you made a mistake and you didn’t know. But we’ve heard for five or six years now, you know, the media was a lying sack of doo. They were fake news. … So how come? What do we do as Americans to say this is not okay?”
Another co-host, off-camera, responded, “It’s the First Amendment.”
Goldberg countered, “The First Amendment doesn’t allow you to willingly lie.”
Goldberg’s comments came as Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for defamation over some of its hosts’ comments questioning the reliability of Dominion voting machines following the 2020 election.
A reader asked us to look into whether Goldberg was right on the constitutional question. Legal scholars told us that she is mostly off base.
“Lies, including knowing ones, do not lose First Amendment protection simply for their untruth,” said Howard M. Wasserman, a law professor at Florida International University.
A spokesperson for “The View” did not respond to...
Times of Malta's editorial team has demanded that alleged money-launderer Chris Spiteri remove false claims posted on Facebook against journalist Jacob Borg. An alert has also been filed with the ...