This is what scared looks like:
Why is Newsmax scared? The same reason FOX is scared:
They’re scared because Dominion and Smartmatic are threatening to sue for damages over the wild lies told about their companies. Because these companies (particularly Dominion) are probably close to ruined, the damages are substantial.
Smartmatic threatening to sue members of the president’s legal team.
To prove defamation, you have to prove each of these elements:
- a false statement purporting to be fact
- publication or communication of that statement to a third person
- fault amounting to at least negligence
- damages, or some harm caused to the person or entity who is the subject of the statement
In this case, the first two elements are easy to prove. Negligence is a little harder because the news organizations will offer defenses. Damages is also easy.
The right-wing has the deluded idea that the First Amendment means they have the right to say whatever they please.
Wrong. There are lots of things you’re not allowed to say. Examples:
- You can’t yell fire in a crowded building. If you do, and someone gets hurt, you’re liable.
- You can’t walk up to a bank teller and say, “Give me all your money.”
- You can’t tell deliberate lies about someone.
When these right-wing newscasters started telling those lies about Dominion, it was clear they were ruining that company.
I’ve often thought that defamation lawsuits are a good way to combat the spread of disinformation. At the start of the pandemic, people wondered whether FOX could be sued for spreading false information about COVID. The problem with such a lawsuit would be proving damages: A person would have to prove that they became sick with COVID because of Fox’s lies, which would be hard to prove. To prove damages, there has to be a direct connection between the lie and the harm. FOX’s defense would be that there were other factors that contributed and that the fault could not be pinned on them.
With the voting machine defamation cases, damages is obviously easier to prove.
FOX and Newsmax are backpedalling, but that doesn’t clear them: If people continue to believe the lies, FOX and Newsmax could still be liable for the damages.
