CNN contributor baselessly claims holding Fox accountable in Dominion case will set a bad “precedent”

Sara Fischer: The “precedent that is being set is that people who are powerful that want to sue news organizations, you can.”

Written by Courtney Hagle

Published

During an April 12 segment discussing Dominion Voting Systems' upcoming defamation trial against Fox News, CNN contributor Sara Fischer baselessly claimed that holding Fox accountable for their extensive election lies would set a bad “precedent” for journalists.

While a judge has already determined that Fox aired repeated lies about Dominion supposedly rigging the 2020 election, the upcoming trial, which is set to begin on April 17, will determine whether Fox News acted with “actual malice” – an extremely high bar for defamation claims established by the Supreme Court to protect honest journalism. However, because of the breadth of Fox’s recognized lies about Dominion, First Amendment experts think the actual malice bar has been met, and have explained how Dominion has an extremely strong defamation case against Fox. Evidence and filings continue to reveal the extensive behind-the-scenes efforts – from top-level executives to Fox’s star talent – to knowingly air lies about Dominion in favor of ratings and keeping Fox’s audience happy. 

The damage from right-wing media’s efforts to deny the 2020 election is far-reaching even beyond the damage to Dominion, as the lies ultimately led to a violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and election lies still proliferate throughout right-wing spaces and continue to impact our elections. 

Despite the fact that the case only further confirms that Fox News has long operated as a political arm of the GOP, not as a genuine outlet for journalism, CNN contributor and Axios journalist Fischer chose to dubiously hand-wring about the impact that holding Fox accountable for its egregious lies will have on journalism writ-large. In a segment on CNN This Morning, Fischer claimed that Fox losing the case will set a “precedent” that “people who are powerful” can “sue news organizations.” 

From the April 12, 2023, edition of CNN This Morning

SARA FISCHER (CNN CONTRIBUTOR): And so, one of the things that's being delegated now or, you know, debated right now is whether or not Rupert Murdoch is going to come, be subpoenaed by Dominion in front of this jury to testify. If he does, it would potentially be explosive. 

POPPY HARLOW (CO-ANCHOR): The malice bar is high. To prove malice, I mean, you have to show – what they've already sort of overcome part of the hurdle of doing this, but now they have to show intented malice. 

FISCHER: It's very high, and I will say there's a part of me as a journalist that's a little bit worried about this case, because if Fox is to lose, essentially the precedent that is being set is that people who are powerful that want to sue news organizations, you can. You know, the bar gets lowered a little bit to an extent if Fox loses this case. And so, the thing that I'm watching is even let's say if Dominion wins, they win for $1.6 billion. If they don’t, to me it suggests that, you know, that bar is not as low as it could be if they lost it all.