Fox News puts blame on Trump in new defamation trial defense strategy
In its fight against the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, Fox News has shifted its strategy to blaming former President Donald Trump, Newsweek reported.
Fox News is requesting that the judge overseeing the case allow it to introduce evidence showing that the network's commentary about mass voter fraud in the 2020 election were just examples of a news organization reporting on the rhetoric Trump was using – not an endorsement of his claims.
"Such a development, if accepted, could play a key role in the development of the case. To successfully win a defamation suit, the allegedly defamed entity would have to prove the person or organization who defamed it did so with harmful intent," Reynolds writes.
In sum, Fox is arguing that Trump's rhetoric about a "rigged" election was newsworthy and the network was just covering his comments as news.
Responding to the network's shift in strategy, Trump lashed out at Fox on Truth Social, writing in all caps, "FOX NEWS IS IN BIG TROUBLE IF THEY DO NOT EXPOSE THE TRUTH ON CHEATING IN THE 2020 ELECTION," he wrote. "THEY SHOULD DO WHAT'S RIGHT FOR AMERICA. WHEN RUPERT MURDOCH SAYS THAT THERE WAS NO CHEATING IN LIGHT OF THE MASSIVE PROOF THAT WAS THERE, IT IS RIDICULOUS AND VERY HARMFUL TO THE FOX CASE. PERHAPS HE SHOULD SAY THAT 'HE JUST DIDN'T KNOW,' BUT THAT IS HARD TO BELIEVE."
Read the full article over at Newsweek.