Right-wing media reckoning: Some outlets pay a price after spreading 2020 election misinformation
Right-wing media that became purveyors of misinformation and amplified false claims as Donald Trump undermined the results of the 2020 election are finding themselves on the losing end of legal challenges — or facing new ones.
Right-wing media that became purveyors of misinformation and amplified false claims as Donald Trump undermined the results of the 2020 election are finding themselves on the losing end of legal challenges — or facing new ones.
In just a few months, a handful of high-profile fringe media operations have been hit with courtroom losses.
The Gateway Pundit, an influential far-right news site, filed for bankruptcy in April in the wake of defamation lawsuits that said the company suggested election workers committed fraud during the previous presidential election. That same month, voting machine company Smartmatic reached a confidential settlement in its defamation suit against One America News Network, which allowed false election fraud claims on air, while its pending defamation litigation based on similar vote-rigging allegations continues against Newsmax as well as Fox News, which is being sued for $2.7 billion. Both Newsmax and Fox News deny Smartmatic’s allegations.
Fox News last year paid another company, Dominion Voting Systems, $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. The network did not admit to any specific claims.
In May, “2000 Mules,” a book and film by right-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza, was pulled by the publisher, Salem Media Group, and the company issued a public apology to a Georgia man who is suing the author and publisher on defamation claims after he was accused of ballot stuffing. That case is still ongoing.
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