account
Subscribe to
Election technology company Smartmatic filed a $ 2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp on Thursday. and a number of its most famous achievers. ”The lawsuit, filed with the New York State Supreme Court, cites“ 100 False Statements and Implications ”in connection with Fox coverage, specifically naming Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro, as well as prominent half-hearted guests Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
Smartmatic, which is involved in creating electoral infrastructure worldwide, says that despite Trumpworld’s fancy rhetoric, voting technology was only used in one county in the 2020 US election – the Los Angeles district , in which the company participated in the implementation of a pandemic – secure voting system. That didn’t stop the far-right misinformation mill from going into high gear with offbeat claims that eventually got to Trump enablers Giuliani and Powell, who took a national election misinformation tour in the weeks and months following the vote. Fox News and Fox Business Network were there to get the word out, no matter how ridiculous the claim.
« Among the dozen of examples cited in the lawsuit is an episode of Lou Dobbs Tonight, dated Jan. November, in which Giuliani alleged Smartmatic was founded by three Venezuelans near former dictator Hugo Chavez to freeze elections, « the Washington Post notes. « Dobbs thanked Giuliani for the fact that the host felt a cover-up at certain points. » Hugo Chavez died in 2013 and, as you can imagine, had nothing to do with anything, let alone creating a magical voting system , with which voices could be changed without detection, as invented by the extreme right-wing conspiracies.
The smear reverberated, according to the company’s lawsuit, so that Smartmatic « became known as a criminal among voters in the US and abroad, who stole the 2020 US election « . The association with the Trump-powered, Fox-broadcast misinformation resulted in enormous reputational and financial costs, the company said in its lawsuit. This could be a dangerous – and expensive – legal basis for Fox Corp. which is valued at nearly $ 18 billion as the financial damage is fairly explicit, as are the cases of willful misrepresentation of the truth that could be beyond the protection of the First Amendment. The network has made some effort on the air to track some of its claims in response to Smartmatic’s legal challenges, but the damage has already been done.
« FOX News Media strives to provide the full context of each story with in-depth coverage and to provide clearer opinion, « Fox News said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. « We are proud of our 2020 election coverage and will vigorously defend ourselves against this unfounded lawsuit in court. » Another fictional villain in the 2020 election, Dominion Voting Systems, has also filed billions in libel suits against Giuliani and Powell for similar reasons. Other right-wing extremist networks like Newsmax could be next.
Update, February 5, 2021: This post was updated with a statement from Fox News when it was published.
You are running out of free articles. Join Slate Plus to read on, and you’ll get unrestricted access to all of our work – and support Slate’s independent journalism. You can cancel at any time.
Subscribe now
Already a member?
Sign up here.
Subscribe now
Already a member?
Sign up here.
Slate is published by The Slate Group, a Graham Holdings Company.
All content © 2021 The Slate Group LLC. All rights reserved.
Slate depends on advertising to support our journalism. If you appreciate our work, please deactivate your ad blocker.
By joining Slate Plus you support our work and receive exclusive content. And you will never see this message again.
« )), c = d (m [i.size_id] .split ( » x « ). Map (function (s) {return value (s)}), 2 ), s.width = c [0], s .height = c [1]), s.rubiconTargeting = (Array.isArray (i.targeting)? i.targeting: []). redu (function (e, t ) {return e [t.key] = t. Values [0], e}, {rpfl_elemid: f.adUnitCode}), t.push (s)): n.logError (« Rubicon: bidRequest undefined at index position: » . concat (o), r, e), t}, []). sort (function (e, t) {return (t.cpm || 0) – (e.cpm || 0)})}, getUserSyncs : Function (e, t, r, n) {if (! X&&e.iframeEnabled) {var i = « »; return r&& « string » == typeof r.consentString&& (« boolean »? == typeof r.gdpries) « ? gdpr = » .gdprApplies), « &gdpr_consent = »). concat (r.consentString): i = « ? gdpr_consent = « . concat (r.consentString)), n&& (i = » « . concat (i? » & « : »? « , » us_privacy = « ) .concat (encodeURIComponent (n))), x =! 0 , {type: « iframe », url: « https: // » .concat (g.syncHost || « eus », « .rubiconproject.com / usync.html ») i}}}, transformBidParams: function (e) {return n.convertTypes ({accountId: « number », siteId: « number », zoneId: « number »}, e)}}; Function v (e, t) {var r = obgetConfig (« pageUrl »); r = e.params.referrer? e.params.referrer: r || t.refererInfo.referer; return e.params.secure?r.replace(/^http:/i, »https: »):r Genealogie function y (e, t) {var r = e.params; if (« video » === t) {var i = []; return r.video&&r.video.playerWidth&&r.video.playerHeight? i = [r.video. playerWidth, r.video.playerHeight]: Array.isArray (n.deepAccess (e, « mediaTypes.video.playerSize »)) &&1 === e.mediaTypes.video.playerSize.length? i = e.mediaTypes.video. playerSize [0]: Array.isArray (e.sizes) CSSEANDCH AR&0e.length) && (t = e.length); for (var r = 0, n = new array (t); r ‘; var i, o}}, h = function (e) {var t = 0 = e&&t.innerWidth’ v.vast_url « »: v.vast_string&& (y = v.vast_string), g.pre_market_bids.push ({id: v.deal_id, seatbid: [{bid: [{impid:, dealid: v.deal_id, price: v.price, adm: y}]} ], cur: v.currency, ext: {event_log: [{}]}}}} var h = n.getBidIdParameter (« mimes » « , e .params) || [ » application / javascript « , » video / mp4 « , » video / webm « ], _ = {id: e.bidId, sure: l, video: {w: p, h: f, ext: g, mimes: h}}; » « ! = n.getBidIdParameter (« price_floor », e.params) && (_. bidfloor = n.getBidIdParameter (« price_floor », e.params)), « »! = n .getBidIdParameter (« start_delay », e.params) && (_. video. video .startdelay = 0 Boolean (n.getBidIdParameter (« start_delay », e.params))), « »! = n.getBidIdParameter (« e! .params) && (_. video.minduration = n.getBidIdParameter ( » min_duration « ) , e.params)), « »! = n.getBidIdParameter (« max_ duration « , e.params) && (_. video.md .getBidIdParameter (« max_duration », e.params)), « »! = n.getBidIdParameter (« placement type », e.params) && (_. video.ext.placement = n.getBidIdParameter (« placement type », e.params))), « »! = n.getBidIdParameter (« position », e.params) && (_. video.ext.pos = n.getBidIdParameter (« position », e.params)), e.crumbs&&e.crumbs (c = e .crumbs.pubcid ); var S = navigator.language? « language »: « userLanguage », I = {id: s, imp: _, site: {id: « », page: a, content: « content »}, device: {h: screen height, w: screen width, dnt : n.getDNT ()? 1: 0, language: Navigator [S] .split (« -« ) [0], brand: Navigator.Vendor navigator.vendor: « », including: navigator.userAgent}, ext: {wrap_response: 1}}; n.getBidIdParameter (« number_of_ads », e.params) && (I.ext.number_of_ads = n.getBidIdParameter_ « , e.params)); var A = {}; return 1 == n.getBidIdParameter ( » spotx_all_google_consent « , e .params) && (A.consented_providers_settings = u), t&&t.gdprConsentConsent .consentString, void 0! == t.gdprConsent.gdprApplies&ons )), t&&t .us_privacy « , t.uspConsent), n.deepAccess (e, » userId.id5id.uid « ) && (A.eids = A.eids || [], A.eids.push ({source: « id5-syn c.com », uids: [{id: e.userId.id5id.uid}], ext: e.userId.id5id.ext || {}})), c&& (A.fpc = c) , e&&e.schain&CSSE (I.source = {ext: {schain: e.schain}}), e&&e.userId&&e.userId.tdid&&, {source | : « adserver. org », uids: [{id : e.userId.tdid, ext: {rtiPartner: « TDID »}}]}))), n.isEmpty (A) || (I.user = {ext: A}), {method: « POST », URL: « https://search.spotxchange.com/openrtb/2.3/dados/ » s, data: I, bidRequest: t}} )}, interpretResponse: function (e, t) {var r = [], i = e.body; return i&&n.isArray (i.seatbid) &&n._each (i.seatbid, function (s) {n._each (e.bid, function (s) {var a = {}; for (var c in t.bidRequest. bids) e.impid == t.bidRequest.bids [c] .bidId&& (a = t.bidRequest.bids [c]); n._each (a.params. pre_market_bids, function (t) {t.deal_id == e.id&& (e.price = t.price, i.cur = t.currency)}); var d = {requestId: a.bidId, currency: i.cur || « USD », cpm: e.price, creativeId: e.crid || « », dealId: e.dealid || « », ttl: 360, netRevenue:! 0, channel_id: i.id, cache_key: e.ext.cache_key, vastUrl: « https: // search .spotxchange.com / ad / vast.html? key = « e.ext.cache_key, videoCacheKey: e.ext.cache_key, media type: sd, width: ew, height: eh}; d.meta = d.meta | | {}, e&&e.adomain&&0e.length) && (t = e.length); for (var r = 0, n = new array (t); rt? e: t} function d (e, t, n) { ! e.preload&&e.preloadThreshh old&&function (e, t, n, i) {return t.top = e.shownThreshold&&! e.seen? (e.seen =! 0, setTimeout (function) new r (« shown », t))}, 15)) :(! n || i1&& (h = e (r, Math.floor (n / o), i-1, o)), h}, dies .getVerticallyVisiblePixels = f, this.getViewportHeight = function () {return t.innerHeight || e.documentElement.clientHeight || e.body.clientHeight}, this.getViewportWidth = function () {return t.innerWidth || e.documentElement .clientWidth || e.body.clientWidth}, this.isElementNotHidden = u, this.isElementInViewport = functi on (n) {var i = n.getBoundingClientRect (); return i .top> = 0&&i.left> = 0&&i.bottom = o.length) return {done: true}; return {done: false, value: o [i]}; }, e: function e (_e) {throw _e; }, f: F}; } throw new TypeError (« Invalid attempt to iterate on a non-iterable instance. nTo be iterable, non-array objects must have a [Symbol.iterator] () method. »); } var normalCompletion = true, didErr = false, err; return {s: function s () {it = o [symbol.iterator] (); }, n: function n () {var step = it.next (); normalCompletion = step.done; Regression; }, e: function e (_e2) {didErr = true; err = _e2; }, f: function f () {try {if (! normalCompletion && it.return! = null) it.return (); } finally {if (didErr) throw err; }}}; }}
Function _unsupportedIterableToArray (o, minLen) {if (! O) return; if (typeof o === « string ») return _arrayLikeToArray (o, minLen); var n = Object.prototype.toString.call (o) .slice (8, -1); if (n === « Object » && o.constructor) n = o.constructor.name; if (n === « Map » || n === « Set ») returns Array.from (o); if (n === « Arguments » || /^(?:Ui|I)nt(?:8|16|32)(?:Clamped)?Array$/.test(n)) return _arrayLikeToArray (o, minLen); }}
Function _arrayLikeToArray (arr, len) {if (len == null || len> arr.length) len = arr.length; for (var i = 0, arr2 = new array (len); i
Ref: https://slate.com
