Months after Fox News settled its much-publicized lawsuit with Dominion Voting Services for almost $800M, the popular cable news network is now being sued by a handful of different pension funds. Leaders of the funds in question, which all invested money in Fox Corp, claim the company ignored the “existential threat” of making unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election, and its failure to amend its behavior after receiving cease and desist letters led to the aforementioned financial settlement and another lawsuit that is still in progress.
The specific pension funds are the NYC Employees Retirement Fund, City Board Of Education Retirement Fund, City Fire Department Pension Fund, Police Pension Fund and Teachers Retirement System and the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund. According to Deadline, they are all banding together to sue Fox Corp, as they have sizeable investments in the company and feel those investments were not properly looked after because of the mismanagement of the election lawsuits. You can read a portion of the lawsuit below…
Major media companies generally take precautions to minimize potential defamation claims. They follow established practices and standards about what they will publish, engage in fact-checking, undertake editorial review, and make timely corrections to inaccuracies. When accused of publishing a false story, they investigate, and, if warranted, retract the story if it falls short of editorial standards. They apologize to reduce the reputational harm.
The New York City pension funds have a combined $28.1M invested in Fox Corp, while the Oregon fund has $5.2M in holdings, per The Associated Press. That’s apparently enough for those that run the funds to make their unhappiness with Fox known, though exactly what damages they’re seeking is still unclear, as the lawsuit does not yet specify what they’re looking to get out of it.
The legal issues all go back to things broadcast on Fox News in the wake of the 2020 election. The popular news network aired interviews and featured segments in which some of its guests and/ or hosts claimed the election results may not have been accurate. More problematically, in some cases, the finger was pointed either directly or indirectly at voting machines used to tabulate the ballots. The two primary companies that produced these machines, Dominion Voting Services and Smartmatic, later filed lawsuits against FoxCorp.
The Dominion Voting Services lawsuit was settled prior to the conclusion of the trial for $787.5M. Some high profile layoffs followed not long after, as well as some major shake-ups with on-air talent. The Smartmatic lawsuit is still ongoing, and the company is seeking $2.7B in damages. It’s unlikely Fox would have to pay that amount, but even if it ends up forking over anywhere close, it would represent another monumental expenditure over something the pension funds claim was entirely preventable.
Whether or not this lawsuit ends up at trial or concludes in some other way will likely depend on what exactly the funds are asking for. Are they looking for damages? Are they looking to force a change in leadership? Right now that’s very unclear; so, we’ll just have to wait for more information to emerge.
