(PresidentialDaily.org)- Former Attorney General William Barr came to the defense of Fox News in an editorial column in Wall Street Journal against defamation claims filed by Dominion Voting Systems. Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal as well as Fox News.
Barr said that the voting technology provider’s case against the cable news giant was “poor” and that a ruling against Fox would dramatically weaken the First Amendment protection enjoyed by news companies.
In an opinion piece published Thursday night, the former attorney general said that a ruling against Fox would be a significant setback for freedom of the press and put other media outlets in danger whenever they report on noteworthy assertions that turn out to be false.
For months, Fox’s legal team—which includes the former attorney general—has argued that the network is not accountable for the claims made by Trump’s aides regarding vote fraud and that the fact that the president of the United States was making such charges was newsworthy.
According to Dominion, top Fox News officials and broadcasters intentionally spread misleading information against Trump and his associates. Fox executives have been shown to discount Trump’s allegations of election fraud privately but worried about how the network’s viewers would react to fact-checks of such claims, according to court filings filed by the voting systems industry in recent weeks.
Dominion said in a statement on Friday that the company “strongly supports the First Amendment and the protections it provides.”
According to a company official, it is well established that the First Amendment does not protect broadcasters that intentionally or recklessly disseminate lies.
Fox claims that Dominion has cherry-picked internal papers to fabricate a case that the network engaged in harmful behavior against the telecom provider. Defamation cases have strict legal requirements, including proof of actual malice.
The left shouldn’t only cheer for Dominion here. There may be more leftist media outlets than conservative ones, but the former is more likely to be sued for defamation.
