Former AG Barr Defends Fox News

Former Attorney General William Barr defended Fox News from claims of defamation brought in court by Dominion Voting Systems in an opinion column published in The Wall Street Journal.

Calling the voting tech provider’s case against the cable news giant “weak,” Barr argued a ruling against Fox would severely weaken the First Amendment protection that all news media enjoy.

“A ruling against Fox would be a major blow to media freedoms generally, subjecting news outlets to the prospect of outsize liability whenever they report on newsworthy allegations that turn out to be false,” Barr wrote in the op-ed published Thursday evening.

William Barr

The Hill reports the former attorney general’s line of thinking mirrors arguments Fox’s lawyers have been making in court documents and public statements for months: that Fox was not responsible for the claims made by Trump’s allies about voter fraud and the fact the president of the United States was making those claims was newsworthy.

Dominion has charged top executives and hosts at Fox knew the allegations being made by Trump and his allies were false but decided to air them anyway. The voting systems company has unearthed in court filings in recent weeks a series of internal communications and depositions from leaders at Fox showing them privately dismissing Trump’s claims of voter fraud but worrying how the network’s audience might react to fact checks of those claims.

In a statement on Friday, Dominion said the company “is a strong believer in the First Amendment and its protections.” 

“As long-settled law makes clear, the First Amendment does not shield broadcasters that knowingly or recklessly spread lies,” a spokesperson for the company said. 

Fox has argued the internal communications of its employees have been “cherry picked” and do not prove the network acted with actual malice, a key legal standard in defamation cases, toward Dominion.