The week
Dominion spokesman: ‘Mike Lindell is begging to be sued and at some point, we might as well serve you’
“In just a few weeks, lawsuits and legal threats from two obscure electoral technology companies have accomplished what years of advertising boycotts, public pressure campaigns and liberal outrage have failed to: restrict the flow of disinformation in the right-wing media,” Michael Grynbaum writes in The New York Times. Dominion Voting Systems sued Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell for defamation, seeking $ 1.3 billion in damages, and threatened to sue Fox News and other conservative media outlets. Rival voting technology company Smartmatic sued Fox News for $ 2.7 billion. Brian Stelter of CNN asked Dominion spokesman Michael Steel about the lawsuits on Sunday, including whether any new ones are imminent. “I’m not here to report on this, but let me say this: Mike Lindell is begging to be prosecuted and, at some point, we might as well serve you,” said Steel. Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, paid for three hours of broadcasting on Friday on One America News Network to broadcast a program he produced about his voting conspiracy theories. OANN started this with an extraordinary warning. Lindell tweeted on Saturday night that he could sue Dominion, a threat that Steel criticized on CNN. Steel, a former spokesman for House speakers, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) And John Boehner (R-Ohio), also said that Dominion suing Fox News is “definitely a possibility”. A media law professor, Lynn Oberlander, told Stelter that disclaimers from Fox News, Newsmax, OANN and other media about allegations of electoral fraud may actually protect them from defamation lawsuits. They “are not the typical handbook of right-wing media, which prides itself on boxing and delights in ignoring liberals who have long complained about its content,” writes Grynbaum. But like it or not, “the litigation represents a new front in the war against disinformation, a scourge that reshaped American politics, deprived citizens of common facts and paved the way for the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol.” Defamation lawsuits “should not be the way to govern language in our country,” lawyer Roberta Kaplan told the Times. “It is not an efficient or productive way of promoting journalistic standards of quality or truth-finding through court litigation. But I think it has reached the point where the problem is so serious now that there is practically no other way to do it. ” Fox News said in a statement that it is “proud of our 2020 election coverage and will defend itself vigorously” against Smartmatic’s “meritless process”. More stories from theweek.com What is the purpose of Trump’s second impeachment trial? 5 brutally funny cartoons about the launch of sloppy vaccines in the United States.One of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ main government rivals in Arkansas just got out of the race