Ten days after the 2020 election, Fox News’ so-called Brain Room looked into conspiracy theories that Dominion Voting Systems had rigged the presidential election against Donald Trump.
The fact-checking and research division of the network came back with a clear decision: Those claims were false. But the misinformation went on the air anyway.
Details of the Brain Room’s fact-check were revealed Wednesday in newly released slides from a presentation by Dominion, which the company showed at last week’s pre-trial hearing in its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp. The slides cite internal communications and testimony.
Fox News had redacted the “Brain Room” findings, but the judge ordered on Tuesday that they should be made public.
Testimony from Fox’s own executives underscored the importance of the Brain Room’s role in verifying information that goes on air.
“If the brain room had concluded that the charges were, in fact, false, they never should have been aired, correct?” a Dominion lawyer asked David Clark, Fox News’ senior vice president for weekend news and programming, in a deposition on Oct. 21, 2022.
“Yes,” Clark replied.
Dominion argues that it was severely damaged by claims put forward by Fox News hosts and guests suggesting the voting machine company tipped the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.
Fox News did not immediately return a request for comment, although it has maintained that this case is an attack on the First Amendment.
“Despite the noise and confusion that Dominion has generated by presenting cherry-picked quotes without context, this case is ultimately about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute need to cover the news,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement last week. “FOX will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press.”
Source – NBC News
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