{"id":121903,"date":"2021-02-09T09:24:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T14:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121903"},"modified":"2021-02-09T09:58:09","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T14:58:09","slug":"fox-news-calls-2-7-billion-smartmatic-lawsuit-attack-on-first-amendment-moves-to-dismiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fox-news-calls-2-7-billion-smartmatic-lawsuit-attack-on-first-amendment-moves-to-dismiss\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox News Calls $2.7 Billion Smartmatic Lawsuit Attack On First Amendment, Moves To Dismiss"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffox-news-calls-2-7-billion-smartmatic-lawsuit-attack-on-first-amendment-moves-to-dismiss%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=121903&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Maria-Bartiromo.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Fox News filed a motion on Monday to dismiss a defamation lawsuit Smartmatic filed against the company for its post-election coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Smartmatic <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/voting-company-smartmatic-sues-fox-news-others-for-allegedly-running-disinformation-campaign\">sued the network<\/a> on Thursday alleging that Fox and several of its hosts \u2013 Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and Jeanine Pirro \u2013 had defamed the voting technology company. A day after the lawsuit was announced, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/fox-news-suddenly-cancels-lou-dobbs-tonight-fox-business-highest-rated-show\">Fox cut Dobbs\u2019 show<\/a> from its lineup on Fox Business, though he still remains under contract.<\/p>\n<p>Smartmatic\u2019s defamation suit also targeted former President Donald Trump\u2019s attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump ally Sidney Powell. Fox News said the lawsuit was an attack on its \u201cFirst Amendment mission\u201d report the news.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis lawsuit strikes at the heart of the news media\u2019s First Amendment mission to inform on matters of public concern,\u201d Fox said in its motion to dismiss, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/02\/08\/business\/media\/fox-smartmatic-defamation-lawsuit.html\">The New York Times<\/a>. \u201cAn attempt by a sitting president to challenge the result of an election is objectively newsworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The network argued that it cannot be held liable for statements made on its shows by Giuliani and Powell, who were both key players in the former president\u2019s legal fights to challenge the results of the 2020 election. The network also said that the Smartmatic lawsuit did not identify any specific defamatory statements made by any of its hosts. In December, the network ran a fact-checking <a href=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/6217414534001#sp=show-clips\">segment<\/a> on election fraud claims on each of the three hosts\u2019 shows that were mentioned in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe public had a right to know, and Fox had a right to cover, that the president and his allies were accusing Smartmatic (and others) of manipulating the election results, regardless of the ultimate truth or accuracy of those allegations,\u201d Fox\u2019s filing says.<\/p>\n<p>In its lawsuit, Smartmatic claimed that Fox News and others orchestrated an election narrative that painted the voting technology company as \u201ca Venezuelan company under the control of corrupt dictators from socialist countries\u201d that was \u201cresponsible for stealing the 2020 election by switching and altering votes to rig the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefendants\u2019 story was a lie. All of it. And they knew it. But, it was a story that sold. Millions of individuals who saw and read Defendants\u2019 reports believed them to be true,\u201d the lawsuit said. \u201cSmartmatic and its officers began to receive hate mail and death threats. Smartmatic\u2019s clients and potential clients began to panic. The company\u2019s reputation for providing transparent, auditable, and secure election technology and software was irreparably harmed. Overnight, Smartmatic went from an under-the-radar election technology and software company with a track record of success to the villain in Defendants\u2019 disinformation campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSmartmatic\u2019s loss was Defendants\u2019 gain. Fox News used the story to preserve its grip on viewers and readers and curry favors with the outgoing administration \u2013 one of their anchors was even able to get a pardon for her ex-husband,\u201d the lawsuit continued. \u201cMs. Powell used the story to raise money and enrich herself. Mr. Giuliani used the story to guarantee himself a flow of funds from the sitting President and to sell products. Defendants knew the story could not change the outcome of the election. It could, and did, make them money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fox News filed a motion on Monday to dismiss a defamation lawsuit Smartmatic filed against the company for its post-election coverage. Smartmatic sued the network on Thursday alleging that Fox &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1892975,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4002,4484,3755,4585,4133,5428],"class_list":["post-121903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-attack","tag-billion","tag-calls","tag-lawsuit","tag-news","tag-smartmatic"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1892975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}