New York pension fund sues Fox over election coverage, defamation suits

New York City's pension funds on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Fox Corporation, contending that the company's coverage of the 2020 presidential election opened it up to defamation suits that adversely impacted shareholders.

Earlier this year, Fox settled a high profile defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million. The company had sued the outlet for allowing its guests to make false claims against the firm. The five NYC pension funds hold roughly 857,000 shares, worth $28.1 million, the New York Times reported.

Collectively, the plaintiff funds represent more than 800,000 workers with combined holdings of $253 billion. The bloc filed its suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery, contending that the outlet opted to placate irate viewers with false content related to the 2020 election and failed to minimize the risk of lawsuits that could impact the company and shareholders.

"Defendants chose to invite robust defamation claims, with potentially huge financial liability and potentially larger business repercussions, rather than disappoint viewers of Fox News," the filing reads.

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander contended that Fox "has a longstanding practice of allowing conspiracy theories that its executives and its board know are false to be repeated over and over and over again, despite the very clear and present risk of defamation lawsuits eroding shareholder value."

The suit comes ahead of a second defamation case, slated for 2025, brought by Smartmatic over the network's coverage of its technologies with respect to the election.

Fox News has struggled with a drop in ratings since the departure of host Tucker Carlson, who has since started his own program on X, formerly known as Twitter. Carlson was fired from the network shortly after the settlement.

Former President Donald Trump has also fallen out with the network, which has largely shifted its coverage of him following the 2020 election. He recently boycotted the first Republican primary debate, which Fox hosted, in favor of releasing a prerecorded interview on X, with Carlson.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.