FAR-RIGHT TV NETWORKS BEING SUED FOR DEFAMATION

 

                               …This Trump Supporter was dropped by Fox News

 

Lou Dobbs was just one of Fox News personalities listed in a billion dollar lawsuit

 

It is appearing that Fox News and many of the other far right networks are all going to get caught up in a mass of law suits.  Law suits for all the disinformation that they offered up about the presidential election.  It is also appearing that the dropping of the most watched program on Fox Business, that being “Lou Dobbs Tonight”, is a reaction to the $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic against Fox News on Feb. 4. 

In addition to comments made directly by Dobbs, the lawsuit focuses on comments made by Dobbs’s guests, including Trump-affiliated lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. “Mr. Dobbs did not try to stop Ms. Powell from spreading disinformation about Smartmatic,” the suit alleges. "He and others at Fox News had agreed to join Ms. Powell and Mr. Giuliani to spread the disinformation. So, Mr. Dobbs closed his shows as he started it: endorsing Ms. Powell’s claim that Smartmatic is to blame for ‘massive corruption across the country.’ ”

The suit also names Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, both of whom are still with Fox and they hosted their shows this past weekend as scheduled.

Dobbs has even boosted a tweet from a supporter suggesting that Fox News viewers should “ditch Fox for the far right, small network, OANN (One American News Network), a would-be competitor to Fox News.

As it was used by President Trump before they turned the president off, Mr. Dobbs has been using Twitter as his “tool of choice” for going after Fox News.  “Judging by his retweets, I would say he is furious with Fox, and he has every right to be,” the conservative, Carmine Sabia told The Washington Post in a message.  “Fox News is desperate to be accepted by people who will not accept them. Cancelling @LouDobbs is not going to satisfy the blood lust of the rage mob.”

This is all the more surprising considering that Dobbs still remains under contract with Fox, even as his show has been dropped. The Los Angeles Times, which broke the story, reported that, “he will in all likelihood not appear on the company’s networks again.”

The lawsuit accuses Dobbs and those several Fox colleagues of spreading “disinformation” about the election-technology company Smartmatic as part of an effort to keep then-President Trump’s hopes for a second term alive.

Beyond his activity on Twitter, Dobbs is more or less staying quiet, declining to comment when reached by The Post Friday night.  Political consultant Dick Morris, a former Fox News contributor who was dropped by the network eight years ago, said he spoke with Dobbs on Saturday.  While the conversation was off-the-record, Morris said that Dobbs laughed after he told him, “Welcome to the Fox alumni association.”

Newsmax, a smaller, even further-to-the-right cable channel that has been trying to win over those Trump supporters frustrated by what they see as Fox’s insufficient support of the ex-president, they took jabs at Fox about Dobbs’s cancellation.

“Fox News is just not the old Fox News that it once was,” Newsmax host Rob Finnerty said on air Monday. “Get this: The highest-rated host on Fox Business suddenly had his show cancelled on Friday after 10 years. . . . The problem? Well, Lou Dobbs is a Trump supporter."

And some of Dobbs’ fans on Facebook vowed to leave Fox over the decision.  “Fox was on the bubble for me. They are off my list now,” one supporter wrote on Facebook. “Time to turn off the channel,” wrote another.

If only more people would do that to both Fox and all the other far right networks that continue to support Donald Trump and continue to spread political disinformation.

Copyright G. Ater 2021