Former Trump Attorney General, William Barr argues (The Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2023) that Dominion’s defamation case against Fox News has fatal flaws. Barr echoes Fox’s contention that they were just covering the false statements of election deniers rather than endorsing them and that Fox hosts were expressing opinions in telling lies about the election and Trump’s defeat.
Aaron Blake, The Washington Post, March 24, 2023, finds Barr’s arguments lacking. Barr said Fox was just reporting claims from those spreading lies and not endorsing them. Actually Fox hosts themselves parroted their guests’ lies. At any rate, Fox is in jeopardy for knowingly spreading the falsehoods for their own gain. As for Barr’s contention that the Fox host statements were opinion, opinions without factual base are not protected.
Ronnell Andersen Jones and Lyrissa Lidsky, Slate, March 23, 2023, write that if Dominion prevails, they will be compensated for the damage to their reputation and possibly punitive damages, but that victory will not address the challenge of the “toxic but general lies infecting public discourse, such as ‘the election was stolen.'”