Jun 18, 2020·edited“An attorney representing Fox News reportedly made an interrogative statement in federal court that directly called into question the news value of the number one host in all of cable news.
“Would a reasonable viewer be coming here and thinking this is where I’m going to be hearing the news of the day?” Fox News attorney Erin Murphy asked U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil during a hearing conducted via telephone on Wednesday, according to Law360 reporter Frank G. Runyeon’s account of what was said.
The underlying case is a defamation lawsuit filed by former Playboy model Karen McDougal, one of two women who claimed to have had past affairs with President Donald Trump but who were paid off to keep their stories private during the 2016 presidential election.
McDougal sued in 2019–alleging Carlson defamed her by accusing herself and Stormy Daniels of committing the crime of extortion. Though the lawsuit is focused on the host’s alleged defamation by slander, Fox News is named the lone defendant in the case.
Slander requires the publication of a false statement of fact. Slander per se is a variant of traditional slander which makes a case against a defendant easier to prove if they accuse someone of false statement that falls under various categories recognized under New York case law. Here, McDougal has claimed slander per se because of the nature of the alleged crime.
Under New York State defamation law, the entire case essentially hinges upon whether or not a reasonable viewer would have thought that Carlson was actually accusing McDougal of a crime.
Fox News attempted to argue exactly the opposite in court on Wednesday–insisting the controversial host was simply employing First Amendment-protected hyperbole and that a reasonable viewer would have, in fact, clearly understood the host’s rhetorical device.
MSNBC lawyers argued along these very lines when defending host Rachel Maddow against a defamation lawsuit that was filed by One America News Network (OAN). That lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.”
Jun 18, 2020the fact that MSNBC & Fox both used the same defense of their network(s) in court really tells you all you need to know about the legitimacy of the media