‘You Are Not Good People!’ Stunned View Hosts Gleefully Rip ‘Despicable’ Fox News Apart Over New Defamation Evidence
The hosts of The View laughed as they ripped Fox News over revelations in the Dominion defamation lawsuit that shocked even the most strident Fox critics on the panel.
Damning comments made by Fox News hosts and executives in private in the aftermath of the election were revealed Thursday in a new filing by Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for defamation and seeking $1.6 billion in damages.
On Friday’s edition of ABC’s The View, Joy Behar opened the show with a summary of the story, drawing a laugh from co-host Sunny Hostin — who said she was surprised at the strength of the evidence:
JOY BEHAR: Coming, everybody. There was no significant fraud in the 2020 election. We all know that now. But it turns out there was plenty, plenty of fraud at Fox News. Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News and its parent company for $1.6 billion over election fabrications and lies after they falsely reported that Dominion Machines could have switched votes from Trump to Biden. Falsely reported. Now, documents show that honchos like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham never believed it anyway, and they thought that Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani were lying and nuts, quote unquote, that’s their words. Now, Fox wasn’t even on board with pushing the lies at first, but once ratings dipped, they fell in line and gave Trump and his minions a big megaphone. Here’s a memo to Fox News viewers: you are free to keep watching. Just know that they don’t believe what they tell you to believe.
SUNNY HOSTIN: Yeah.
JOY BEHAR: What do you think of all that?
SUNNY HOSTIN: I’m terrified by it because so many people do believe that it is actual news and it’s just the dissemination of misinformation. I will say I never have a lot of confidence in these types of cases, cases against media companies, because the First Amendment, freedom of the press, freedom of speech is really vast and very protective. And that’s why usually these cases are lost. But in this case, they have actual text messages from Fox News personalities saying things like “this is a lie.” “This is nuts.” Tucker Carlson even said it, which is really shocking. And you have people like Brett Baer, who is an actual journalist, saying, we can’t let this on air. We have to fact-check this. Those are, I think, probably some of the most damning evidence, evidential texts that I’ve ever seen in my legal career.
JOY BEHAR: But there was an intent.
SUNNY HOSTIN: Think they could win.
JOY BEHAR: to defame the Dominion machines.
SUNNY HOSTIN: They have to prove actual malice. Yeah, those text messages prove actual malice. I think they could lose this.
Co-host Ana Navarro added her own editorial note to one of the exchanges revealed in the filing:
ANA NAVARRO: Carlson says to Ingraham, “Sidney Powell is lying, by the way, I caught her. It’s insane,” Ingram responded. “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.” Carlson responded, “Our viewers are good people and they believe it.” Yeah, but you know what? You are not good people! Because you continue putting them on. Because you continue saying lies and because you do it in order to (inaudible) people misinformed.
Co-host Sara Haines called the deception “absolutely despicable” and co-host Alyssah Farah Griffin said she was “struck” by messages from opinion hosts criticizing and attempting to torpedo Fox News journalists.
“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement. “Dominion has mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context, and spilled considerable ink on facts that are irrelevant under black-letter principles of defamation law.”
Watch above via ABC’s The View.
