The free-wheeling say-anything-ugly or dangerous ride that the ultra-conservative networks Newsmax and OAN have enjoyed has gone off of the tracks. It appears the networks attack individuals regularly, but when it comes to corporations, the fight gets far more interesting, and costly.
Oh, it is already in the ditch doing hand-to-hand combat in a massive $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit that claimed Fox was engaged in a “disinformation campaign.” Some of their talking heads are fighting right beside the networks — Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, and Jeanine Pirro.
Back to Newsmax and OAN. The voting technology company Smartmatic is seeking damages caused by “election conspiracies” against each of them. Reuters claimed the organization suffered up to $2 billion in losses.
Smartmatic “provided election technology manufacturing, systems integration, software development, and logistics for only Los Angeles County, California.” It did not contract with any other states.
Smartmatic’s reputation, like other voting machine-affiliated companies, is all that stands between doing business and bankruptcy. Their lawsuits claim that both of these networks knowingly made repeated false accusations against it, indicating the voting machines had been altered to throw the election to President Joe Biden.
Connolly said in its press release:
‘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.’
Smartmatic wrote in its press release:
‘Defendants published these claims despite knowing it was not true and despite readily available and verifiable facts showing that Smartmatic provided technology and services in only Los Angeles County.’
The lawsuit filed against One America made reference to OANN:
‘OANN knew that the statements and implications that it made about Smartmatic were false and/or it acted with reckless disregard regarding whether its statements and implications were true,” reads the suit against One America. “OANN did not care about making truthful statements about Smartmatic. OANN was motivated to tell a false story about how Smartmatic fixed, rigged, and stole the 2020 U.S. election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.’
CEO of Smartmatic Antonio Mugica pointed to its lawsuit against Newsmax. He claimed that the organization “acted with actual malice, [it] knew that the statements and implications that it made about Smartmatic were false:”
‘The damage to Smartmatic from this parallel universe of lies and disinformation has reverberated across the United States and in dozens of countries around the world. The global repercussions for our company cannot be overstated.’
The Newsmax spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters:
‘While Newsmax has yet to receive or review the Smartmatic filing, Newsmax reported accurately on allegations made by well-known public figures, including the President, his advisors and members of Congress, as well as reporting on Smartmatic’s claims in its defense. Smartmatic’s action against Newsmax today is a clear attempt to squelch the rights of a free press.’
There are also two more of Trump’s “finest” legal attorneys fighting in the ditch, too, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. They are fighting billion-dollar-plus defamation lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting Machines for their accusations of election fraud.
Read the lawsuit against OAN here, and read the suit against Newsmax here.
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