Defamation suit against Fox News tossed by U.S. federal judge

A defamation suit against Fox News by a government official who served on a short-lived U.S. government media disinformation board was dismissed Monday by a federal judge.

The lawsuit from Nina Jankowicz alleged that Fox News had defamed her on numerous occasions, leading to waves of online attacks and threats of violence after the formation of the Disinformation Governance Board, where she served as a director.

In May of 2022, just weeks after its launch, the Department of Homeland Security paused the board’s work and accepted Jankowicz’s resignation. The board was officially dissolved and its charter rescinded in August of that same year.

In rejecting Jankowicz’s claims, the judge said that 36 of the 37 statements made on Fox News programs were about the disinformation board and not Jankowicz. The judge ruled that the remaining statement — which was also a reference to the board and not Jankowicz, despite showing an image of her as it was said — was not disinformation because it was a factual statement that matched the wording in the board’s own charter describing its purpose.

“This was a politically motivated lawsuit aimed at silencing free speech and we are pleased with the court’s decision to protect the First Amendment,” Fox News said.

The disinformation board was launched by the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to counter disinformation coming from Russia as well as misleading information that human smugglers circulate to target migrants hoping to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dozens of Republican lawmakers and conservative pundits took to social media immediately after the board’s launch, calling for it to be disbanded. They described the board as an Orwellian body that could be used to suppress free speech.

In April of last year, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly US$800 million to avert a trial in the voting machine company’s lawsuit that would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election.