The lawsuit follows Fox News’ recent settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
QUICK FACTS:
- Former head of the now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board Nina Jankowicz has filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
- The lawsuit follows the settlement of the Dominion Voting Systems suit against Fox News.
- The case asserts Fox News lied about Jankowicz, leading to harassment.
- “Even after achieving their stated goal of driving me out of government and ending the board, they kept using me as a punching bag,” Jankowicz told The New York Times.
- She continued, “It shouldn’t be something we just accept — that the most powerful cable network in the world can attack individuals willy-nilly and not face any consequences after they ruin their lives.”
- Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, Jankowitz’s attorney, said that the Dominion case “shows us how egregious the internal conversations that are happening at Fox are; it shows us that Fox News has an absolute disregard for truth when it is related to their ratings.”
FROM THE COMPLAINT:
- “Over the course of eight months in 2022, Fox talked about Jankowicz more than 300 times,” the suit reads. “Across its broadcast and online publications, Fox’s employee hosts and commentators derided and lied about Jankowicz on repeat—and continue to do so even today.”
- The complaint states that Fox News “falsely claimed that 1) Jankowicz intended to censor Americans’ speech; 2) Jankowicz was fired from her position with the 2 federal government; and 3) Jankowicz wanted to give verified Twitter users, including herself, the power to edit others’ tweets.”
- “This commitment to stay the course even as readily available information contradicted statements of fact made on Fox’s platforms is consistent with Fox’s practices in other contexts, including in its election denialism and the related defamation of Dominion Voting Systems,” the lawsuit adds, referencing the Dominion settlement.
BACKGROUND:
- Fox News avoided a trial with Dominion Voting Systems by reaching a $787 million settlement.
- Dominion sued Fox Corporation for $1.6 billion in March 2021, accusing the news outlet of harming its reputation by airing allegations that Dominion’s voting machines were used to interfere with the 2020 election.
- Fox News argued that the claims originating through Trump and his attorneys were protected by the First Amendment’s right to freedom of the press.
