Fox News hosts accused of conspiring behind the scenes with Trump attorneys as network faces lawsuit

“The Fox anchors decided to join forces with Giuliani and Powell to disseminate disinformation about Smartmatic”

A new court filing argues that Fox News anchors cannot hide behind the First Amendment after helping former president Donald Trump and his allies spread election lies.

Voting technology company Smartmatic filed a 120-page motion asking a New York state court to reject the conservative network’s attempt to dismiss a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by claiming its coverage was protected speech, arguing those protections should not apply because anchors knew election fraud claims were untrue, reported Law & Crime.

“This is not a game. The First Amendment does not provide the Fox Defendants a Get Out Of Jail Free card,” the motion argues. “The Fox Defendants do not get a do-over with their reporting now that they have been sued.” Continue reading.

Fox News uses the word ‘hate’ much more than MSNBC or CNN

Fox News is up to five times more likely to use the word “hate” in its programming than its main competitors, according to our new study of how cable news channels use language

Fox particularly uses the term when explaining opposition to Donald Trump. His opponents are said to “hate” Trump, his values and his followers. 

Our research, which ran from Jan. 1 to May 8, 2020, initially explored news of Trump’s impeachment. Then came the coronavirus. As we sifted through hundreds of cable news transcripts over five months, we noticed consistent differences between the vocabulary used on Fox News and that of MSNBC. Continue reading.