Fox News anchors Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs have all been removed over allegations that they perpetuated voter fraud lies and damaged Dominion Voting’s reputation by hosting friends and supporters of Donald Trump on the air.
Dominion filed a lawsuit against Fox News in March last year, alleging the network deliberately spread a false narrative that its machines and counting systems had been rigged in favor of President Joe Biden.
It was a story every news outlet in the world covered, but Dominion claims Fox gave Trump’s claims a particularly sympathetic ear.
Carlson and Pirro were ousted last week while Dobbs was ousted yesterday. Hannity is scheduled to be interviewed today and Maria Bartiromo is scheduled to be interviewed next week.
Dominion’s attorneys claim that even if they didn’t push the narrative that the election was rigged themselves, they caved in to the idea by allowing Sidney Powell, Trump’s attorney, and Rudy Giuliani, his longtime adviser, to talk about it.
Fox is fighting the lawsuit and has repeatedly tried to have it dropped, claiming the journalists were just doing their job and covering the allegations of voter fraud like any other news outlet.
Tucker Carlson was dropped last week for hosting guests like Mike Lindell on his show last year in January 2021. The lawsuit alleges that he and other Fox hosts encouraged Trump
Jeanine Pirro interviews Trump attorney Sidney Powell. She is also being sued by Dominion in a separate lawsuit. They are pictured on November 14, 2020
Lou Dobbs interviews Rudy Giuliani on his November 12, 2020 show about the allegations of voter fraud
Giuliani on Sean Hannity’s show on November 19, 2020, which will revisit the claims
In front of the examples provided by Dominion, the Fox hosts were skeptical of Trump’s election claims and criticized his refusal to accept the election result.
Maria Bartiromo will be sacked next week for reporting on the voter fraud allegations
Dominion’s lawyers say it turned off pro-Trump viewers.
In what they describe as a deliberate about-face in reporting to win back those viewers, Dominion says the show’s hosts have begun to treat allegations of voter fraud favorably.
Dominion’s attorneys also say they have evidence the hosts knew it wasn’t true. That evidence can be found in emails and texts, which they say show journalists and producers discuss it with far more skepticism than they ever did on air.
Fox insists to these emails and texts were taken out of context.
“Pirro’s reporting of these matters of public concern and widespread concern is at the heart of the First Amendment,” they said.
None of the individual hosts are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which seeks $1.6 billion to restore Dominion’s reputation.
In response to another lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, whose software is used in the Dominion machines, Pirro’s attorneys said it shouldn’t be held liable for “doing what it does best.”
The voting company claims it will never recover from Trump’s repeated claims that its machines have been rigged to count votes for him as votes for Biden.
“Fox brought to life a fabricated story of voter fraud, starring a then little-known voting machine company called Dominion as the villain.
“After the November 3, 2020 presidential election, viewers began fleeing Fox to favor media that supported the lie that President Trump lost the election through massive fraud.
“They saw Fox as insufficiently supportive of President Trump, in part because Fox was the first network to state that Trump lost Arizona.
“Fox sought to lure viewers back — including President Trump himself — by intentionally and falsely blaming Dominion for the loss of President Trump by rigging the election.”
The lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News Network in Delaware last March. The Colorado company is asking for $1.6 billion
Dominion voting machines used in the November 2020 election. Trump claimed the machines were rigged to count more votes for Biden
Fox News told in a statement: “We are confident that we will prevail as freedom of the press is fundamental to our democracy and must be protected, on top of outrageous claims for damages that are unsupported and not based on a solid foundation financial analysis. this is nothing more than a blatant attempt to keep our journalists from doing their jobs.”
The lawsuit points to several November 2020 shows where pro-Trump guests were interviewed.
Dobbs has repeatedly hosted Trump’s attorney Sidney Powell, as has Jeanine Pirro.
Rudy Giuliani was interviewed, as was Mike Tindall – the CEO of MyPillow and die-hard Trump fan and donor.
The lawsuit alleges that they “repeatedly published defamatory falsehoods about Dominion, including by broadcasting and redistributing the defamatory falsehoods of its on-air personalities Maria Bartiromo, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and their select guests.”
Fox isn’t the only network being sued by Dominion.
The Colorado-based company has also taken legal action against OAN (One America Network) and Newsmax, as well as the likes of Giuliani, Mike Lindell and Sidney Powell.
A trial date has been set for next April so the case can proceed.
Fox hired high-profile trial attorney Dan Webb, who successfully prosecuted actor Jussie Smollett for lying to police about being the victim of a racial hatred attack.
He told the Washington Post: “There are very few events in this country over the past 50 years that I feel are more newsworthy than our President’s claim that our entire democratic system has been turned upside down by a vote-stealing voting machine company .”