Interesting timing here. Smartmatic has been off the radar for a while but today they filed a 197-page lawsuit in federal court against both OAN and Newsmax. Law and Crime:
Two more shoes have dropped in voting machine giant Smartmatic’s legal offensive against television broadcasters and talking heads of the political right. Smartmatic sued One America News and Newsmax for defamation on Wednesday, more than half a year after filing a multi-billion dollar civil action against Fox News, Rudy Giuliani, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Sidney Powell.
“The first time it happened could be a mistake,” the 197-page federal complaint begins. “The second, third, fourth and fiftieth times it happened were intentional choices. OANN had every opportunity to do the right thing after the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. It could have reported the truth. Instead, OANN chose to do the wrong thing every time. It reported a lie.”
“It Will Cross Legal and Ethical Lines to Climb the Ladder”
Smartmatic filed the lawsuit against OANN in the District of D.C., and the company separately sued Newsmax in Delaware Superior Court, framing the network’s conduct as a quest to lure Fox viewers.
“It is not easy to climb the ladder and get to the top,” the complaint against Newsmax begins. “It is even harder to climb if one is following the rules when others are not. Newsmax has long wanted to ascend the viewership ladder. It has now shown that it will cross legal and ethical lines to climb the ladder and push off the one at the top”
The company’s attorney J. Erik Connolly separately skewered the right-wing networks in a statement.
“Despite claims to provide viewers with honest, unbiased reporting, these outlets victimized Smartmatic by spreading false information about the company following last year’s election, all in their efforts to increase viewership and revenue,” Connolly wrote.
If Smartmatic is able to prove up loss of business of approximately $2 Billion dollars, which is their stated intent here, they will have an excellent case. What usually hamstrings defamation suits is proving up actual damages. Smartmatic may not have that problem.
It would be glorious if huge punitive damages were awarded as well. That would serve as a cautionary tale to any broadcasters of the future who want to play fast and footloose with the truth.
I wonder what’s going on over at corporate headquarters of AT&T right now, since they’ve been so happy to fund OAN?
Stay tuned, this is going to get interesting. Making a killing in fake news may end up being a fad of the past. Or, it may be an industry which is now going to go through some things, as Donald Trump might phrase it. This could be some landmark litigation.
The AT&T angle should be interesting. Even if damages were split among the three defendants 667 billion is an amount that would sting some even for AT&T. For Smartmatic however, if they added in the big corp. they’d be facing much better lawyers and might not want to go there. However, the (so far at least) defendants might recognize the value of getting AT&T roped in for that very reason so as I said this could get interesting.
Money talks bullshit walks is the word on the street.