The New York Times and a Consortium of Media Organizations Tried to Rule Whether Fox News Improperly Edited Some of the Texts and Email Exchanges Filed in Evidence in the Dominion Voting System Defamation Lawsuit Against the Network I am asking the officer.
Dominion and Fox settled last month for $787.5 million, believed to be the largest out-of-court payment in a defamation lawsuit. But a legal challenge filed by The Times in January seeking to release some of what Fox and Dominion marked as confidential in legal documents remained unresolved.
On Monday, an attorney representing The Times wrote to Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis, saying the issue was incontrovertible simply because the case was settled. There are legal precedents that affirm the public’s right to understand what unfolded in a settled case before it went to trial.
“Here, the public interest in having an accurate and complete record of documents filed with the court is important to understand the nature of the parties’ claims and the court’s basis for many of the judgments made prior to the settlement. essential,” the letter said. Said.
The lawsuit focused on whether Fox News knowingly aired false claims about the Dominion and its voting machines after the 2020 election. , a litigant must have a “good reason” to keep the information confidential. Reasons for doing so typically include protecting financial figures, trade secrets, or other proprietary information. Judge Davis referred to attorneys for both sides when they had no right to mark something confidential because they were embarrassed.
Both sides have compiled information from depositions, private correspondence, and legal documents. But Fox’s compilation was much more extensive, leaving much of what the hosts, producers and executives had to say to each other in emails and texts, as well as much of the testimony hidden behind blackened text in court documents. rice field.
Among the redacted texts was a private message from Fox host Tucker Carlson, who was fired from the network last week. Fox Corporation’s board of directors learned about an offensive and vulgar message from Mr. Carlson that was edited just before the trial began, causing a crisis at the top of the company.
The Times’ deputy general counsel, David McCraw, said the case was historic and that its complete record should not be kept secret.
“The public has the right to know as completely as possible how the parties argued in court,” said McLaw. It should not be used to inform the public of what happened in open court proceedings.”
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
