A lawsuit filed by Wolf Popper LLP and four other firms was cited in a May 27, 2023 New York Times investigative article authored by reporters Jim Rutenberg, Michael S. Schmidt and Jeremy W. Peters. The article, titled Missteps and Miscalculations: Inside Fox’s Legal and Business Debacle, and based on “interviews with roughly a dozen people directly involved in or briefed on the company’s decision-making,” provides new reporting on the Fox Corporation’s coverage of the 2020 presidential elections and ensuing litigation.
Beginning in approximately November 2020, Fox broadcasted false statements accusing two voting technology companies, U.S. Dominion, Inc. and Smartmatic USA Corp., of conspiring to steal the election from Donald Trump in favor of Joseph Biden. Smartmatic and Dominion sued Fox, alleging $4.5 billion in specified damages in addition to unquantified punitive damages. While the Smartmatic lawsuit is ongoing, the Dominion lawsuit, the Times article explains, “resulted in one of the biggest legal and business debacles in the history of [Fox founder and board chairman] Rupert Murdoch’s media empire,” culminating in a $787.5 million settlement, “the largest known settlement in a defamation suit.” The article references internal documents showing that “executives knew conspiracy theories about Dominion were false yet did not stop hosts and guests from airing them.”
The Times article also observes that Fox ignored Dominion’s repeated written demands to cease airing false claims or face legal action. “Such letters often set off internal reviews at news organizations” but “Fox’s lawyers did not conduct one,” the article states. “Had they done so, they may have learned of an email” demonstrating that a primary source of the false election claims was delusional and utterly lacking in credibility.
The Times article quotes Wolf Popper’s complaint, which alleges that Fox’s leadership would have “‘materially mitigated’ Fox’s legal exposure” if it complied with Dominion’s requests.
Wolf Popper’s action, which follows an investigation into Fox’s internal books and records, asserts that Fox’s directors, including Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan K. Murdoch, breached their fiduciary duties by exposing Fox to extremely costly litigation, reputational injury, and other harm, and demands that they indemnify the company for damages resulting from their wrongdoing.