© Roy Rochlin/Getty ImagesMaria Bartiromo
Smartmatic sued the network on Thursday alleging that Fox and several of its hosts - Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and Jeanine Pirro - had defamed the voting technology company. A day after the lawsuit was announced, Fox cut Dobbs' show from its lineup on Fox Business, though he still remains under contract.
Smartmatic's defamation suit also targeted former President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani and Trump ally Sidney Powell. Fox News said the lawsuit was an attack on its "First Amendment mission" to report the news.
"This lawsuit strikes at the heart of the news media's First Amendment mission to inform on matters of public concern," Fox said in its motion to dismiss, according to The New York Times. "An attempt by a sitting president to challenge the result of an election is objectively newsworthy."
The network argued that it cannot be held liable for statements made on its shows by Giuliani and Powell, who were both key players in the former president's legal fights to challenge the results of the 2020 election. The network also said that the Smartmatic lawsuit did not identify any specific defamatory statements made by any of its hosts. In December, the network ran a fact-checking segment on election fraud claims on each of the three hosts' shows that were mentioned in the lawsuit.
"The public had a right to know, and Fox had a right to cover, that the president and his allies were accusing Smartmatic (and others) of manipulating the election results, regardless of the ultimate truth or accuracy of those allegations," Fox's filing says.
In its lawsuit, Smartmatic claimed that Fox News and others orchestrated an election narrative that painted the voting technology company as "a Venezuelan company under the control of corrupt dictators from socialist countries" that was "responsible for stealing the 2020 election by switching and altering votes to rig the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris."
"Defendants' story was a lie. All of it. And they knew it. But, it was a story that sold. Millions of individuals who saw and read Defendants' reports believed them to be true," the lawsuit said. "Smartmatic and its officers began to receive hate mail and death threats. Smartmatic's clients and potential clients began to panic. The company's reputation for providing transparent, auditable, and secure election technology and software was irreparably harmed. Overnight, Smartmatic went from an under-the-radar election technology and software company with a track record of success to the villain in Defendants' disinformation campaign."
"Smartmatic's loss was Defendants' gain. Fox News used the story to preserve its grip on viewers and readers and curry favors with the outgoing administration - one of their anchors was even able to get a pardon for her ex-husband," the lawsuit continued. "Ms. Powell used the story to raise money and enrich herself. Mr. Giuliani used the story to guarantee himself a flow of funds from the sitting President and to sell products. Defendants knew the story could not change the outcome of the election. It could, and did, make them money."
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