Bryan Li (10) | STAFF REPORTER
Over the past month, Fox News, mostly known for right-wing/republican news reports, was ordered to pay $787.5 million dollars to Dominion Voting Systems, those who were in charge of the voting process for the 2020 United States Presidential election. After current President Joe Biden won, many television personalities on Fox News expressed outrage.
Many said that the election was rigged, causing a huge national uproar, which led to many horrific events, including the January 6th riot. Famous Fox News personalities, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, publicly agreed, claiming that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the election in Joe Biden’s favour. However, this was not true, causing Dominion Voting Systems’ reputation and finances to plummet.
This begs the question of whether free speech is truly free; if so, are news outlets held to a higher standard than others?
Free speech is enshrined within the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. However, if someone lies purposefully to a vast audience, this act arguably violates the First Amendment. Hence, news outlets should be held to a higher standard than others; Fox News has garnered a huge support base across the nation, with millions of people tuning in to their popular shows, such as Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity. Had Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and other Fox News hosts did not have the big platform and exploit their fanbase, the volume of the rumours of election rigging would not have been exacerbated.
Credibility is often wrongly ascribed to big news networks, like Fox News because gullible viewers assume that national hosts speak nothing but the truth. Yet, this automatic trust may cause misleading rumours to be spread manifold.
The case against Fox News is the first case of its kind. With the huge payout of $787.5 million that Fox News has to fulfill, this will set a colossal legal precedent within the radicalized U.S. news industry. More unscripted news talk shows may turn to more scripted features, with pre-checked facts and stories. This may also change the political landscape of news networks. Most news networks, like ABC and CBS News, are left-wing/democratic news networks. Some other networks, like Fox News, are right-wing/republican news networks.
With the recent lawsuit, some networks may turn to more neutral-based reporting in order to reduce the chance of another huge incident, avoiding a second occurrence of a similar lawsuit.
