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In the wake of Dominion Voting Systems settling its defamation lawsuit against Fox News for $787.5 million – just under half of the $1.6 billion it had sued for – Smartmatic, which is suing the right wing cable network for $2.7 billion, is vowing to “expose” the rest of the “misconduct” it is alleging.
“Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest,” the company said in a statement, as The New York Times reports.
Smartmatic is a privately held multinational electronic voting systems company that is also alleging defamation against Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News. The case has not yet gone to trial.
Semafor’s Ben Smith adds Smartmatic also said: “Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy.”
Dominion appears pleased with the settlement, with its chief executive John Poulos calling the settlement “historic,” The Times notes.
“Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion,” Poulos said.
The Atlantic’s David Frum muses about how much more money Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Fox News might cost the company, should it win its defamation case.
“Until extremely recently, the largest libel verdict in US history was $222 million in 1997,” Frum says, pointing to a Washington Post article about a case against Dow Jones over its Wall Street Journal article.
“The $965 million verdict against Alex Jones last year topped that,” Frum adds. “Fox’s $787 million is now the runner-up.”
Continuing to muse about how much Smartmatic might get, if it were to win its case, Frum says, “Pending the Smartmatic settlement, which may pole-vault Fox into first place ahead of Alex Jones. It’ll be remarkable if one company settles two out of three biggest defamation cases in US history within a few weeks of each other. Shareholder derivative suits may then follow.”
Indeed, similarly, NBC News’ Ben Collins suggested the Fox News settlement, by comparison, was not enough.
“InfoWars has to pay out almost a billion. Three-quarters of that for a much more well-funded and expansive set of lies — a lie which they continue to entertain — seems like small potatoes,” Collins tweeted, adding: “To me.”
Image by rosietulips via Flickr and a CC license
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