Legal troubles ramp up for Fox as Rupert Murdoch is sued by investor over ‘stolen election claims’
An individual shareholder of Fox Corporation is suing Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, as well as other members of the company’s board alleging they breached their fiduciary duty to the company.
In a lawsuit filed in Delaware Chancery Court on 11 April, investor Robert Schwarz brought forth a derivative suit claiming that board members chose to promote “false stolen election claims” which negatively impacted the company’s reputation and led to two defamation cases.
“The Board’s decision to chase viewers by promoting the false stolen election claims has exposed the Company to public ridicule and negatively impacted the credibility of Fox News as a media organization that is supposed to accurately report newsworthy events,” the lawsuit alleges as reported by NBCNews.
“The Company is now the subject of two defamation cases, with combined damages claimed to exceed $4 billion,” the lawsuit continues.
The case is Schwarz v Murdoch et al., No. 2023-0418 according to Reuters, which first reported about the suit.
Mr Schwarz is alleging that board members and higher-ups at Fox Corporation knew Fox News was pushing false information citing filings from Fox’s ongoing lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems.
“Fox knew – from the Board on down – that Fox News was reporting false and dangerous misinformation about the 2020 Presidential election, but Fox was more concerned about short-term ratings and market share than the long-term damages of its failure to tell the truth,” the lawsuit says per Reuters.
Dominion sued Fox Corporation and Fox News in 2021, accusing them of knowingly furthering false claims about its electronic voting machines and election fraud in the wake of the 2020 election.
In court filings, messages between Fox News executives and hosts show them expressing uncertainty about the election fraud claims.
Fox News claims Dominion has taken things out of context and “cherry-picked quotes without context”.
“Despite the noise and confusion that Dominion has generated by presenting cherry-picked quotes without context, this case is ultimately about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute need to cover the news. FOX will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press,” a spokesperson for Fox said in March.
The lawsuit is seeking damages for the company from Mr Murdoch, his son and CEO Lachlan, and directors Chase Carey, Roland Hernandez, and Jacques Nasser.
It is also seeking unspecified corporate governance reforms, according to Reuters.
The Independent has reached out to Fox Corporation for comment.
