A recent filing by Fox News in defense of a defamation lawsuit brought forth by Dominion Voting Systems contends the cable news channel did not act with actual malice and points to an offer made by Maria Bartiromo to the election machine company’s CEO as evidence to support its case.
In the filing, Fox News contends that it offered Dominion the opportunity to share its side of the story, with Bartiromo offering to interview the company’s CEO in an email exchange with Dominion representative Tony Fratto.
In the exchange, Fratto told the Fox News host that claims from Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — lawyers for then-President Trump — were “verifiably false”, adding that they were “tinfoil hat conspiracy stuff”.
“I’m not saying you should ignore the story, but Rudy is literally making things up as he goes,” Fratto said.
“Are you saying I should not cover a sitting president contesting a presidential election?” Bartiromo pondered. “Should I just blow it off & go with the rest of the media who has taken us down rabbit holes based on their ideologies now for 4 years and counting? Is that what you suggest I do?”
After being told that Dominion employees were receiving death threats after being harrassed by Powell, Bartiromo then agreed that she would push Powell on her election claims. Later in the exchange, Bartiromo asked “Do you want me to have Dominion CEO on?”
According to the network, Dominion CEO John Poulos said that potential customers of the company “don’t care about the media. It’s just more words from their perspective”. The network also claims that an independent arbiter for the voting machine company showed it had not experienced “a loss of clientele” and that it actually attracted new customers.
“Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red-handed again using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press,” a Fox News spokesperson told Barrett News Media. “We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.”
