Fox News is ‘lawyering up’ and readying for battle over potential coronavirus lawsuits: report

Back in January and February, Fox News’ coverage of the coronavirus pandemic often downplayed the severity of the virus and claimed that Democrats, liberals and the mainstream media were exaggerating the dangers as a way of attacking President Donald Trump. Critics of Fox News, however, are divided on what is and isn’t an appropriate response to its abysmal coverage of the pandemic: some view Fox News’ coronavirus coverage as appalling but constitutionally protected speech, while others are asserting that lawsuits are appropriate. And journalist Caleb Ecarma, this week in Vanity Fair, reports that Fox News’ legal department is ready to go to battle if necessary.

Coronavirus was hardly the “hoax” that Trump and Fox News claimed it was. According to researchers at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, the pandemic has killed more than 76,300 people worldwide and more than 10,900 in the United States alone (as of early Tuesday morning, April 7). In other words, MSNBC and CNN’s coverage of the dangers that coronavirus posed were much more accurate than what Fox News hosts Trish Regan, Sean Hannity, etc. claimed. And Ecarma notes that the Washington League for Increased Transparency and Ethics (WASHLITE) has filed a “consumer protection complaint” naming Fox News and others as defendants. The lawsuit asserts that the “defendants acted in bad faith to willfully and maliciously disseminate false information denying and minimizing the danger posed by the spread of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, which is now recognized as an international pandemic.”

WASHLITE’s Arthur West told the Times of San Diego, “That’s the real evil of this type of programming. We believe it delayed and interfered with a prompt and adequate response to this coronavirus pandemic.”

Other lawsuits against Fox News might be forthcoming, and Ecarma reports that the right-wing cable news outlet is “lawyering up” and plans to fight them aggressively. A Fox News executive, quoted anonymously, told the Beast, “The strategy is no settlements, even if it costs way more to fight the lawsuit and seek sanctions for ambulance-chasing lawyers.”

Lily Fu Claffee told the Beast that WASHLITE’s lawsuit is “wrong on the facts, frivolous on the law” and asserted, “We will defend vigorously and seek sanctions as appropriate.”

During a Sunday, April 5 appearance on MSNBC, Vanity Fair reporter Gabriel Sherman said that Fox News insiders had expressed “real concern…. that their early downplaying of the coronavirus actually exposes Fox News to potential legal action by viewers who maybe were misled and actually have died from this.” And Sherman added that while Rupert Murdoch was canceling his March 11 birthday party because of coronavirus, Fox hosts like Regan and Hannity were “telling viewers that it’s a hoax…. If it actually winds up being proved that people died because of it, this is a new terrain in terms of Fox being possibly held liable for their actions.”

In March, the Washington Post posted a video that demonstrated how much Fox News’ coverage of coronavirus had changed — and the video showed clips of Hannity, Pirro and others at Fox downplaying its deadly potential. A similar video was posted on HuffPost in March.