Fox News Defeats Defamation Suit Brought by Former DHS Employee

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JUL 23 2024

Image copyright: Michael M. Santiago/Staff/Getty Images News via Getty Imagesstory last updated JUL 23 2024

The Facts

A federal judge on Monday dismissed the defamation lawsuit brought by Nina Jankowicz, a former US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) employee, against Fox News Media and its parent company Fox Corp.
Jankowicz, a disinformation expert, was brought on to lead a short-lived DHS Disinformation Governance Board that was formed in May 2022. In her suit against Fox, she alleged she resigned from the board "as a result of Fox's false statements and the ensuing harassment."
However, Colm Connolly, chief judge of the US District Court in Delaware, ruled that 36 of the 37 statements Jankowicz cited did not refer to her, but rather the Disinformation Governance Board as a whole.

The Spin

Left narrative

Irrespective of the court ruling, Fox News' vitriol against Jankowicz spurred a campaign of harassment that forced her to resign from the role and led to the Disinformation Governance Board closing its doors. Democracy is now worse off because there's no way of agreeing on what's true and what's not.

the Guardian

Right narrative

The judge rightly threw out the case against Fox. Their reporting did not focus on Jankowicz, but rather on the Disinformation Governance Board — highlighting that it was a form of censorship that was rightly subjected to criticism. It's for the people, not the government, to be the arbiters of truth.

US News & World Report

Nerd narrative

There's a 50% chance that the 2024 US presidential election will also be considered fraudulent by the losing party, according to the Metaculus prediction community.

Metaculus