A Delaware judge dealt Fox News Channel (FNC) another blow Wednesday.
Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled yesterday that Dominion Voting Systems can force Fox Corporation execs Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch to testify in person at this month’s high-stakes jury trial.
Other executives and star hosts, like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, appear set to testify. (RELATED: Fox News’ Primetime Stars Set To Testify In Dominion Trial)
Dominion seeks to prove that FNC committed actual malice by knowing former President Donald Trump lost reelection but entertaining Trump’s conspiracy theory narrative, allegedly what their audience wanted to hear.
As CNBC reports:
Earlier on Wednesday Dominion in a letter filed to the court urged Judge Eric Davis, who is presiding over the case, to compel both Murdochs to appear live. It also requested in-person testimony from Paul Ryan, the Republican former speaker of the House and a Fox board member, and Viet Dinh, Fox’s chief legal and policy officer.
“Fox and Dominion have made these four parties very relevant,” Davis said during a hearing on Wednesday. “It’s not the corporation that raises its hand on the stand, it’s their officers and directors that raise their hand on the stand.”
“So if Dominion wants to bring them in live, they need to do a trial subpoena and I would not quash it. I would compel them to come,” Davis added on Wednesday.
The letter comes days after the judge ruled that the lawsuit would go to trial in April.
The bar for winning libel and defamation cases against the media was set by the 1964 Supreme Court ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan. The prosecution must show that a news outlet or journalist knowingly made false statements with reckless disregard or actual malice.
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