Samuel Case, FISM News
Fox News is facing another defamation lawsuit, this time from the former head of the now defunct Disinformation Governance Board, Nina Jankowicz, who claims the network “trafficked in malicious falsehoods” that harmed her “safety, reputation, and well-being.”
The complaint, filed in Delaware on Wednesday, alleges in the spring of 2022 Fox launched “a malicious campaign of destruction” against Jankowicz.
“Over the course of eight months in 2022, Fox talked about Jankowicz more than 300 times,” it reads. “Across its broadcast and online publications, Fox’s employee hosts and commentators derided and lied about Jankowicz on repeat — and continue to do so even today.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board received immediate backlash and skepticism after being launched in April of 2022, with then-House Leader Kevin McCarthy calling it “Orwellian.”
Days before being tapped as the board’s chief, Jankowicz told NPR that law enforcement and government need to take action against what she views as abusive online speech:
We need the platforms to do more, and we frankly need law enforcement and our legislatures to do more as well. And in other countries that are looking at this, you know, the U.K. has an online safety bill that’s being considered right now where they’re trying to make illegal this currently, quote, ‘awful but lawful content’ that exists online where people are being harassed.
Less than three weeks after its formation, the Department of Homeland Security paused the board and Jankowicz resigned. In August 2022, the board was permanently disbanded.
Jankowicz alleges in the suit that the board’s “work was paused as a result of Fox’s false statements and the ensuing harassment.”
To bolster its fabricated, bullying narrative of Jankowicz, Fox falsely claimed that: 1) Jankowicz intended to censor Americans’ speech; 2) Jankowicz was fired from her position with the federal government; and 3) Jankowicz wanted to give verified Twitter users, including herself, the power to edit others’ tweets.
Fox settled a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for nearly $800 million last month. The network also faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from voting company Smartmatic, as well as a sex discrimination lawsuit from former producer Abby Grossberg.