Conservative media is known for a lot of things, but honesty is not one of them. Whether that’s fact-free “news” websites that spring up out of nowhere on social media, Fox News or OAN, fact checkers spend a lot of time having to correct guests and talk show hosts on the air, and so-called citizen journalists on social media.
But this time is different. This time conservative media is checking its own facts. Why is that? In a word, lawsuits. Dominion Voting Systems is suing or threatening to sue just about every major conservative media voice that they say is lying about them. The latest is the American Thinker, who in a new post wrote: “We received a lengthy letter from Dominion’s defamation lawyers explaining why they believe that their client has been the victim of defamatory statements. Having considered the full import of the letter, we have agreed to their request that we publish the following statement…”
That statement is, in essence, an admission of guilt. In their own words, “American Thinker and contributors Andrea Widburg, R.D. Wedge, Brian Tomlinson, and Peggy Ryan have published pieces on www.AmericanThinker.com that falsely accuse US Dominion Inc., Dominion Voting Systems, Inc., and Dominion Voting Systems Corporation (collectively “Dominion”) of conspiring to steal the November 2020 election from Donald Trump. These pieces rely on discredited sources…”
After receiving legal letter, conservative outlet American Thinker has issued an incredible statement admitting it published "completely false" info on Dominion that had "no basis in fact." It apologizes to readers for "abandoning" journalistic principles. https://t.co/DVFf2eWBSD pic.twitter.com/Qcqrb74q5L
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) January 15, 2021
This isn’t the first time Dominion has sued or threatened to sue someone. Trump enthusiast and voter fraud attorney, Sidney Powell, is being sued for 1.3 billion dollars for defamation, after she said that, “The Dominion Voting Systems, the Smartmatic technology software, and the software that goes in other computerized voting systems here as well, not just Dominion, were created in Venezuela at the direction of Hugo Chavez to make sure he never lost an election after one constitutional referendum came out the way he did not want it to come out.” Just a reminder that Hugo Chavez has been dead for nearly eight years. And while Smartmatic was founded in Florida by Venezuelans, Chavez was not among them.
But Sidney Powell isn’t the only one to feel a voting company’s wrath. Both Fox Business and Fox News, had news packages on Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Jeanine Pirro’s shows wherein Eddie Perez, a voting machine expert with Open Source Election Technology Institute gave an interview to an offscreen voice in which he said, “I have not seen any evidence that Smartmatic software was used to delete, change or alter anything related to vote tabulations.”
Others, like Newsmax have been required to post retractions as well due to threats from Smartmatic as well.
While it may be primarily about business for Dominion and Smartmatic, Dominion says that their employees have been harassed and received death threats because of the false information that was spread.
It seems conservative media is comfortable lying as much as it wants to, except when it gets called out and the loss of money is involved. Let that be a lesson–if you want the truth, it’s best to sue it out of them.
A final note: Donald Trump lost a legitimate election, an election in which no major instances of voter fraud occurred that could have resulted in a change in the electoral vote. All statements from him and his associates to the contrary should be considered fraudulent, and with his other statements and threats should be considered potential incitement for terrorism.