The trial is being followed closely, as it may affect the operations of the American media in the future.
In the United States, the long-awaited and closely watched trial against Fox News, the country’s most popular news channel, begins today.
Dominion Voting Systems, which manufactures voting machines, is demanding $1.6 billion (just under 1.5 billion euros) from Fox News for claims that Dominion used its machines to change the outcome of the 2020 election Joe Biden for.
The then sitting president Donald Trump lost the election by a clear margin of more than 7 million votes to current President Biden.
Trump did not accept his defeat but spread lies about the ambiguities related to the election. One of his lies was that Dominion had intentionally skewed the election results in favor of Biden.
Fox News gave Trump’s lie plenty of exposure and did not examine it with the criticality required by journalism.
According to experts (you will switch to another service) the setup is very strong for Dominion, as it has ample evidence to show that Fox News management knew Trump was lying, but chose to spread his lies anyway.
Fox News, on the other hand, has appealed to the freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, and warned that a ruling against it would limit media freedom in the future.
The verdict will inevitably set a precedent for the media’s responsibility to its audience. Fox News has defended itself by saying it only reported what then-President Trump said.
When the evidence shows that the channel’s management knew the allegations to be false, the judge of the case inevitably takes a stand on that as well (you move to another service)is knowingly spreading lies allowed in the American media.