“This Dominion Sh~t Is Going To Give Me A Fuc~ing Aneurism” . . . Fox Producer Tommy Firth*
On November 12, 2020, Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich ‘fact checked’ a Trump tweet that mentioned Dominion voting machines and specifically referenced Sean Hannity’s and Lou Dobbs’ broadcasts that evening discussing Dominion. In a group text thread, Heinrich pointed out that “top election officials” said “[t]here is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
Tucker Carlson went off. In a text to Hannity, Carlson said:
“Please get her fired. Seriously. . . . What the fuck? I’m actually shocked. . . . It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”
Dominion Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment at 31 (emphasis in original).
Trump didn’t have to “open up” the libel laws for someone to take on the “fake news” media, a target rich environment among Trump’s favorite “news” platforms and conspiracy theorists. Sandy Hook parents of mass-murdered children recently succeeded in persuading juries in Connecticut and Texas to award them $1.487 billion against Alex Jones and his syndicated program Infowars for defamatory falsehoods Jones published claiming the whole thing was staged.