Inside Lachlan & Rupert’s Defamation Endgame

The Murdochs
The Murdochs. Photo: Max Mumby/Getty Images
Eriq Gardner
July 25, 2022

“Just how big a deal are these Fox News cases, really?” That’s a question I’m being asked a lot these days, as the Dominion Voting libel suit, along with a similar case by Smartmatic, prepares to go to trial. The two voting machine companies are, after all, seeking billions of dollars in damages over their claims that Fox’s lies about the 2020 election destroyed their businesses. That’s a sizable chunk of change, even for the Murdoch family. I have my own theory about how this all ends, of course. But let’s start with the current state of play, and the latest twists, in what could become the biggest libel case against a media company in American history.