Fox News, Newsmax and OAN could face devastating defamation lawsuits over their false voting machine claims

The New York Times

There's a reason why Fox News fact-checked Smartmatic voting machine fraud claims in strange segments over the weekend on Fox News and Fox Business shows hosted by Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. As The New York Times' Ben Smith points out, Smartmatic has been mentioned as being involved in 2020 presidential election voting machine conspiracies a combined 118 times on Fox Business and Fox News. "Here’s the thing: Smartmatic wasn’t even used in the contested states," reports Smith. "The company, now a major global player with over 300 employees, pulled out of the United States in 2007 after a controversy over its founders’ Venezuelan roots, and its only involvement this November was with a contract to help Los Angeles County run its election." The CEO of Smartmatic has retained the attorney behind the "pink slime" defamation case against ABC News to see if there is a possibility to sue Fox News for defamation. Newsmax and OAN could also be sued because they've made the same false Smartmatic claims. Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica says the three conservative cable networks have hurt his business, particularly with worried governments around the world that use Smartmatic to protect their elections. “This potentially could destroy it all,” he said. As Smith notes, defamation lawsuits like this could be particularly devastating to OAN and Newsmax because they can hurt their potential for growth.