Judge in Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Fox News admonished the network

The Fox/Dominion trial is scheduled to start on Monday, and Judge Eric Davis issued several key rulings in the case. Along with sanctioning Fox News for withholding evidence, Davis also ruled that Fox cannot use the rare instances of their attempted fact-checking to push back on Dominion’s claims that their lies were defamatory.

The case against Fox News is clearly not going well for the network. Davis has already determined that Fox aired repeated lies about Dominion during its 2020 election coverage. Internal Fox News documents demonstrate that on-air talent was intentionally misleading its viewers to believe the Big Lie that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

On top of this, new audio emerged this week revealing that Rudy Giuliani admitted that he had no evidence to back a Dominion voting machine conspiracy theory. The new audio also shows that Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo followed Trump campaign directives to promote January 6. It's no wonder that Fox News host Mark Levin is now lashing out at the judge and demanding he step aside.

Shamefully, CNN contributor and Axios reporter Sara Fischer baselessly asserted that holding Fox accountable for its extensive election lies would set a bad “precedent” for journalists. Respected legal experts from Just Security, however, explained that a Fox defeat would not just be in line with established precedents, but furthermore would be beneficial for First Amendment protections in news media: "A jury finding that Fox News is on the hook for 10-figure sum in this case would be both a fair outcome and a victory for democracy – and for the continued vitality of the appropriately balanced approach to the First Amendment."

You can track all of our coverage regarding Dominion’s lawsuit against Fox here.

Amidst this legal battle, Fox Corp. is trying to sell the majority of advertising space on Fox News and other properties with a pitch to buyers that features some of the top talent who pushed lies about the election. While advertising is certainly important, Fox makes most of its money through cable fees. Sign up at NoFoxFee.com to get alerted when Fox is trying to jack up your cable bill. And if Comcast/Xfinity, Cox, or Charter is your carrier, check out our tools to help you contact your carrier to warn them that you don't want to pay for Fox. If they're not your carrier, stay tuned.

For more on this, check out this Twitter threat by Media Matters president Angelo Carusone.

Trump-appointed judge's ruling restricting abortion pill takes language directly from anti-abortion activists

Late last week, federal Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a staunch anti-abortion jurist with a history of conservative activism, ruled to suspend the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone, a safe and effective abortion medication. Kacsmaryk’s ruling was filled with right-wing bias and unscientific anti-abortion claims. Parts of the ruling have since been suspended by the Fifth Circuit court of appeals; a contradictory ruling by another federal judge in Washington state has yet to be resolved. There is every expectation that the issue will head to the Supreme Court soon.

While the legal fight continues, the case comes at an delicate time for conservative media. The resounding defeat of a far-right Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate last week has caused many on the right to question the electoral efficacy of their anti-abortion position. In a telling example of this, a Media Matters study found Fox News barely mentioned the mifepristone rulings, giving just 27 minutes of coverage to the ruling during the three day study period; by contrast, over the same period, both MSNBC and CNN covered the matter for over seven hours.

CNN embarrassed itself by hosting the National Right to Life’s director of communications Laura Echevarria, allowing her to push anti-abortion misinformation with little pushback. As the 2024 election draws nearer, reproductive rights will be a primary issue and mainstream news outlets have an obligation to deliver accurate information to their viewers.

Meanwhile, Fox host Sean Hannity is now saying that anti-abortion candidates are unelectable. This situation is sure to develop in coming weeks.

This week in stupid

• Fox’s Mark Levin said car manufactures won’t include AM radio because “they finally figured out how to attack conservative talk radio.” In reality, the simple explanation is that there is electromagnetic interference.
• Fox’s Greg Gutfeld claimed climate change “improves people’s lives.”

This week in scary

• On Easter Sunday, Fox’s Lisa Boothe said “there’s a battle between good vs. evil, a spiritual battle that’s brewing in America.”
• Led by Tucker Carlson, Fox News personalities are rallying behind Daniel Perry, a Texas man who was convicted of murdering Black Lives Matter protester Garrett Foster, and attacking the district attorney overseeing his case. Commentator Radley Balko explained at length how Fox was smearing Foster: “You only valorize Garrett Foster’s killer if you’ve convinced yourself that Foster deserved to die. And the only real evidence against Foster offered up by the right has been that was participating in a Black Lives Matter protest. So the math here isn’t difficult.”
• Moms for Liberty members have been linked to harassment and threats around the country. Even by those standards, this recent story is a real doozy.
• Charlie Kirk said an anti-trans slur on YouTube.

Excuse me?

• Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ billionaire patron Harlan Crow has Hitler memorabilia and dictator statues displayed in his Dallas home. Ben Shapiro defended the items, saying, “That seems like a reason why you might own this stuff is to remember the things you hate.”
• The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh accused newly-reinstated Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, who is Black, of “doing blackface.” Fox host Tucker Carlson expressed a similar sentiment.
• Benny Johnson said that “there must be pain” and “suffering” for Budweiser after trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney did a sponsored Instagram post for Bud Light. We're on week two of right-wing media outrage about that.
• A BlazeTV host used an extremely misogynist term to refer to Vice President Kamala Harris.

In case you missed it

• In response to the Louisville mass shooting, a Fox guest said he hopes politicians “don’t dwell on” guns.
• Fox’s Mark Levin said former Trump attorney general Bill Barr “just wants to see Donald Trump in prison.” Later in the week, Levin insulted Barr's weight.
• On BlazeTV, MAGA influencer Wayne Allyn Root bragged he’s not “banned by Amazon” even though his “book is about the COVID vaccine being dangerous and deadly.”
• Hours after Jack Teixeira was arrested for allegedly leaking classified documents, Tucker Carlson passionately defended him. Teixeira also is reportedly on film shouting racist and antisemitic slurs.
• Fox hosted an “activist” known for pushing explicit white supremacy.
• A Sinclair-owned Nashville station pushed right-wing narratives in response to the Covenant School shooting.

Further reading

• For years, The New York Times has used John Yoo as a credible source without referencing his key role in drafting the torture memos under George W. Bush.
• Advertisers are reportedly concerned about Twitter CEO Elon Musk's behavior and where he's taking the platform. They should be.
• Numerous right-wing personalities have been telling their followers that they can stop paying federal income taxes by enrolling in a pricey and non-accredited Freedom Law School.
• Twitch’s rival new streaming platform Kick features white nationalist and extremist-linked content creators.
• The Republican National Committee just announced its Rumble channel will be exclusively livestreaming the GOP’s first presidential primary debate in 2024, making the Republican Party itself the latest right-wing entity with exclusive content on the platform — which already hosts QAnon-supporting shows, bigoted right-wing extremists, Holocaust denial, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, and misinformation restricted by other platforms.