Gavin Newsom’s Lawsuit Against Fox News Is Petty, Petulant — and Pretty Damn Perfect

Associated Press

Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News. On its face, it looks like a political stunt. And make no mistake — it is. But that doesn’t make it any less brilliant.

On Friday, as reported by The New York Times, California’s glossy-haired governor filed a lawsuit in Delaware (where Fox is incorporated), accusing the network of defaming him over its coverage of a phone call with President Donald Trump. The suit seeks a Dominion-sized $787 million in damages — and, crucially, a court order barring Fox News from broadcasting segments that falsely claim Newsom lied about speaking to Trump.

In other words, Gavin Newsom is suing Fox for doing what Fox News does best: distorting reality for political sport.

This isn’t a serious lawsuit in the way that, say, the Dominion case was. There, you had a real company with real damages. Here, you have a politician who gets regularly spun by the right-wing outrage machine who has decided to return the favor, with interest.

The core dispute stems from a phone call that did happen — late at night on June 6, according to Newsom and backed up by call logs provided by Trump. But a few days later, Trump told reporters he’d spoken to Newsom just “a day ago.” Newsom, in a now-viral post, clapped back, saying, “There was no call. Not even a voicemail.” He was correcting Trump’s timeline, he says, not denying the call itself.

Fox News pounced, of course. Jesse Watters told viewers, “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” while a chyron screamed: “GAVIN LIED ABOUT TRUMP’S CALL.” Newsom alleges that Fox deceptively edited video and misrepresented the facts to make it appear he had denied the call entirely, turning a timeline clarification into a political smear.

Fox News, unsurprisingly, has not retracted the segment. So Newsom lawyered up.

If you think this seems small and unserious, you are right. But it’s no less absurd than Trump’s legal actions against any number of media outlets he disagrees with, and far more substantive than the crackpot $20 billion suit against 60 Minutes. And that seems to be precisely the point. If Trump can change the rules of engagement, then Newsom will play by the same rules, even if the underlying dispute is murky.

The governor’s legal team even sent Fox a letter demanding a formal on-air apology and retraction from Watters, with a tidy little ultimatum: do that, and we’ll drop the suit. No apology? See you in court.

Look, no one expects this case to end with a giant check or a weepy Watters apology. But that’s not the point. Newsom’s lawsuit is about something else entirely: flipping the MAGA playbook on its head.

For years, Trump and his allies have used the courts as a cudgel against media outlets. They’ve filed frivolous suits not to win, but to chill coverage, drain resources, and send a message. Just this year, Trump launched lawsuits against CBS, ABC News, and even The Des Moines Register. These aren’t legal strategies. They’re intimidation campaigns dressed up as torts.

The intimidation leads to a very real chilling effect, which Bernie Sanders recently convinced Joe Rogan represents a serious authoritarian threat.

Now Newsom is borrowing the same tactic, but he’s not targeting a hometown paper or a local affiliate. He’s going after the undisputed heavyweight champion of pro-Trump spin. And he’s doing it with a smile.

“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf,” Newsom said in a statement, “it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case.”

Is it performative? Sure. But it’s also politically shrewd.

Newsom is casting himself as a Democrat who won’t just clutch pearls when the right-wing breaks norms — he’ll break a few himself. This is the Gavin Newsom who debated Ron DeSantis on Fox, who shows up in hostile media spaces — like Hannity — and enjoys an honest and mutually respectful debate. He is an avid Fox News viewer, is fluent with their talking points, and absolutely relishes conflict the way most Democrats fear it. And this lawsuit sends a message to the Democratic base: you don’t have to take it anymore.

More importantly, it forces Fox News into an awkward position. The same network that has long railed against dishonest and deceptive journalism and liberal bias, now finds itself having to explain — potentially in court — why its deceptive edits and misleading commentary shouldn’t come with consequences.

In a statement to Mediaite, Fox News dismissed the entire ordeal, writing, “Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.”

Regular readers might see a double standard here — after all, I didn’t praise Trump for his media lawsuits. But Trump’s litigiousness is relentless and often baseless. As president, his attacks came with real authoritarian weight. Newsom’s move is different: more postmodern homage than power grab. Think of it like an early ’90s rapper sampling James Brown — familiar, funky, but serving a new and very different purpose.

No, this won’t end in a courtroom reckoning, and nor should it. But that’s not the point. It hangs a lantern on Trump’s legal attacks on the media, and it may also give Fox’s legal team a few sleepless nights. More significantly, it reframes the political fight ahead. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not that Dems never fight dirty. They have just historically fought dirty in a different and far less effective way.

If Trump and his media allies want to play dirty, Gavin Newsom is signaling that Democrats can — and will — fight fire with fire.

And that, for once, doesn’t feel like empty rhetoric. It feels like the new rules.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.