U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon Friday dismissed an antitrust lawsuit filed by Newsmax against Fox News and Fox Corporation, labeling it a "shotgun pleading" due to its disorganized structure.
The lawsuit, filed on September 3, 2025, accused Fox News of engaging in anticompetitive practices to maintain dominance in the right-leaning pay-TV news market, such as coercing distributors to limit or exclude competitors like Newsmax and imposing financial penalties through carriage agreements.
When the lawsuit was filed Fox News issued this statement “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers.”
Cannon, a Trump appointee, found that the complaint’s counts were repetitive, with each successive count incorporating all prior allegations, violating federal pleading standards. She dismissed the case without prejudice, giving Newsmax until September 11, 2025, to refile an amended complaint with clearer, specific allegations.
Newsmax stated it viewed the dismissal as a technical issue and planned to refile, while Fox News had previously argued that Newsmax’s claims were an attempt to compensate for its competitive failures.