Rupert Murdoch’s Deposition Unsealed in Dominion v. Fox Defamation Suit
"To this day, Rupert Murdoch and Fox refuse to apologize for or retract the lies Fox News broadcast about Dominion, even though he [Murdoch] admits that 'I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight' and that Fox hosts 'endorsed' the 'false notion of a stolen election,'" Dominion's filing stated.
Fox News Hosts Didn’t Appear to Believe 2020 Election Fraud Claims, a Newly Released Filing Shows
Top Fox News executives and on-air personalities expressed concern over Donald Trump’s fraudulent election claims in 2020, but the network continued to air the falsities anyway, according to a brief made public Feb. 16 in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the network.
Federal Judge Dismisses the Trump Campaign’s Defamation Lawsuit Against The Washington Post
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit Feb. 3 ruling the Trump Campaign did not adequately plead the factual basis of actual malice for an allegedly defamatory Washington Post article, and ruled another was protected opinion.
A federal judge ordered Donald Trump and his lead attorney to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions after filing a “frivolous” lawsuit to serve a political purpose, the judge wrote Jan. 19.
Timeline: E. Jean Carroll v. Donald Trump and the Defamation Legal Battle
E. Jean Carroll sued former President Donald Trump for defamation in 2019 due to statements he made about her while publicly denouncing her sexual assault allegations against him. The jury has awarded her $88.3 million.
Trump Files $475 Million Defamation Lawsuit Against CNN
The complaint filed Oct. 3 stated, “CNN has sought to use its massive influence – purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source – to defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically, culminating in CNN claiming credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election.”
Jury Dismisses Sarah Palin’s Defamation Claim Against the NY Times
On February 15th, a jury in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by Sarah Palin, a former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate in 2008, against The New York Times. The decision came a day before U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said that he planned to dismiss the suit if the jury sided with Palin. Rakoff maintained that Palin’s lawyers were unable to prove the newspaper published with “actual malice” when it incorrectly linked her to a mass shooting in a Times editorial.
Teacher Guide: Disinformation and the First Amendment
Disinformation is more pernicious and widespread today than at any other point in history, largely because of social media and the Internet. For instance, it is now widely known—and verified by the U.S. intelligence community—that Russians interfered with the 2016 presidential election.