Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, is suing Fox News for defamation, claiming that the news organization purposefully altered a video to make it seem as though the governor had lied about a call with President Trump.
The governor is stepping up his aggressive efforts to combat misinformation with his demand for $787 million in punitive penalties. By suing a publication that many in his party hate, the case, which was made public on Friday, puts Newsom at the vanguard of the political proxy fight between Democrats and Republicans over the press.
The lawsuit claims that Fox continues to contribute significantly to the continued deterioration of the fundamental tenets of informed representative government by eschewing fundamental journalistic ethics in favor of nefarious propaganda.
As tensions between the two leaders increased over immigration raids and the president’s decision to send the National Guard into the streets of Los Angeles, Trump made remarks regarding a phone conversation with Newsom that are the basis for the complaint.
On June 10, Trump informed reporters that he had a conversation with Newsom just a day prior.
Trump called him to inform him that he needed to improve his performance, saying that he was performing poorly. resulting in numerous deaths as well as numerous potential deaths.
On social media, Newsom denied Trump’s timeline right away.
In California, the governor had previously made public remarks about speaking with Trump over the phone late on June 6—early on June 7 for Trump on the East Coast. According to Newsom, there was no mention of the National Guard during that conversation. According to Newsom, they didn’t speak again.
Newsom posted on X, but there was no call. No voicemail at all. The fact that a president sending Marines into our streets doesn’t even know who he’s speaking to should worry Americans.
In the case, Newsom’s attorneys claim that by making the call appear more recent, Trump may imply that they talked about sending troops to Los Angeles, even if they hadn’t.
Trump shared a snapshot of his phone log with anchor John Roberts in an attempt to retaliate against Newsom via Fox. There was no proof of a call on June 9 as Trump stated; the log indicated that a call had taken place on June 7.
Fox’s decision to cover up for President Trump’s erroneous assertion cannot be so readily disregarded, the complaint says, even though it is hard to know for sure whether the President’s distortion was purposefully misleading or just the product of his poor cognitive condition.
Roberts originally misrepresented the scenario to viewers, according to Newsom’s legal team. Then, on June 10, Fox News commentator Jesse Watters played a video of Trump’s remarks regarding the phone call, but he left out the president’s statement that it had occurred a day prior. According to the edit, Newsom claimed the two never had a conversation.
Why would Newsom fabricate that he never received a call from Trump? How come he would do that? Then Watters inquired.
Newsom came under fire from Fox News for criticizing free speech.
Gov. Newsom’s blatant PR stunt is pointless and intended to suppress free expression that criticizes him. In a statement released Friday morning, Fox News stated that it will actively fight the case and hope it would be dismissed.
Fox, a conservative television network that Newsom characterizes as the hub of a right-wing media ecosystem that deceives the public in order to support Trump and his supporters, is where he is most sensitive to his detractors.
The governor made a sly jab at the outlet with the amount of damages he requested.
In order to withdraw a lawsuit against Dominion Voting Systems for making false allegations that voting machines were tampered with to help President Biden win the 2020 election, Fox agreed to pay the network $787 million two years ago.
In a letter to Fox, Newsom’s attorneys stated that if the network takes back their allegations that he misled about speaking with Trump, they will willingly drop the lawsuit.
“We anticipate that you will devote the same amount of airtime to retraction of these lies as you did to their presentation and propagation,” his attorneys said. Furthermore, Fox News and Mr. Watters ought to formally apologize on-air for spreading a falsehood about Governor Newsom.
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