Newsmax CEO Ruddy Center of Court of Court Hearding a Election-Fraud Billing: NPR

WILMINGTON, Delaware – Following the 2020 election, President Trump’s allies have found a warm acceptance in conservative media outlets for now-living claims about election fraud. More than four years later, lawyers are still sparring about the roles that cable news executives like Newsmax’s Christopher Rady played in broadcasting those claims, as the company prepares for public release.

Ruddy’s name was mentioned almost as much as Newsmax itself during a one-day hearing on Friday in a honour-loss case brought about by the Dominion voting system against conservative networks. Dominion, a voting technology company, reached a $787.5 million settlement with Fox News in 2023 over similarly false claims regarding radio waves.

The case falls on the same basic allegations. Not only does Newsmax welcome guests with shows that pitched false claims of voter fraud, they also support those claims knowing they are false and hosts them to increase their ratings. The allegations about voter fraud and Dominion corruption that fulfilled the theory of conspiracy led it to “late death,” Dominion’s lawyer Eve Levin. Newsmax claims Dominion’s claim “seeks for censorship,” as Fox did, and its host is reporting on one of the biggest news stories of the moment.

Sitting in the front row of the sparsely attended hearing, Ruddy enthusiastically saw Dominion’s lawyers display images of his emails and texts, as well as statements he and other Newsmax employees gave under oath. They outlined Radi’s practical role in cable network coverage. And doubt he and others had about their on-air guests.

“Sydney (Powell) needs to check in to the hospital,” Rudy said of a member of Trump’s legal team, who has become extremely prominent in the spread of conspiracy theories about Trump’s fraud following Trump’s election loss. (Powell later pleaded guilty to election interference in Georgia.) Dominion’s lawyers outlined other cases where guests like Powell repeatedly pushed to come to the network.

Dominion’s lawyers claimed internally that Newsmax executives and staff knew guests such as Powell, commentator Dick Morris and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

However, Newsmax “pleaded them to come,” Dominion’s lawyer Davida Brook told the court.

She also showed on-screen excerpts from the executive executive at TopNews Max, the senior vice president of news and operations, on-screen to Executive Vice President of Programming and Content.

“It might be fun to simply give them a microphone, spit out more election rhetoric and move their claims forward without questioning the legitimacy or de facto accuracy of their claims, but that’s awful journalism,” Kanovsky said.

“How long do I have to play alongside election fraud?” Newsmax host Bob Sellers asked showrunner Jerry Burke in another excerpt shown in the court.

These were some of the yet-unrated evidence revealed in cases suggesting an intimate involvement of talent in programming decisions with Newsmax’s top executives. Many of the legal documents submitted in this case have been heavily edited or submitted under seal.

Outside the court, Rudy told NPR that Newsmax coverage has always been balanced, with cases that have “more balanced” coverage “5,000 times more than the decades and a half segment at the heart of the lawsuit.

“What they’ve shown in court is very selective,” he said. “In my view, I had personal doubts as to where it was heading, but I had no power to summon it, but let’s be both sides.”

Newsmax’s lawyers argued on Friday that the show’s hosts are solely responsible for their own statements about the air, and in some cases social media posts. They say executives, including Ruddy, were not responsible for writing, editing or streaming content aired in any of those segments.

They claimed that anchors like Newsmax star Greg Kelly were the hosts of opinions on opinion shows. So they are free to give their opinions under the first revision. Newsmax licenses another show that entertained the election plot, the Howie Carr Show. The employee is not involved in production, the lawyer added.

Newsmax’s lawyers also had a technical argument that Dominion sued the wrong company. According to Attorneys, NewsMax Broadcasting LLC is not the parent company of NewsMax Media Inc., but the company that has published all segments on its cable news channels.

The court held a hearing on Friday to determine whether the case would go before the ju trial or whether the judge would govern some of the important arguments prior to the trial. The ju trial is scheduled to begin next month.

Newsmax recently settled another honour-loss lawsuit brought by voting technology company Smartmatic USA before the case went to trial. Cable Channel has agreed to pay $40 million to resolve the case. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Newsmax vehemently defends the lawsuit against Dominion, saying the losses in the lawsuit could hit the company’s finances sharply. Dominion’s claims are estimated at over $1.6 billion against the company.

Historically, it has been difficult for plaintiffs to sue the press to win the honor and losses. They must prove that the outlet spread the honor-loss statement with “actual maliciousness.” In other words, they either knew what was broadcast was false and harmful, or had evidence to know that it was, and acted with a true “willful neglect.”

Judge Eric M. Davis, who has been the main side of Delaware’s two other voting system cases, is expected to issue a written ruling in the coming days or weeks. In Dominion’s case against Fox, Davis denied the demand for a comprehensive judgment. This was courtesy of Dominion with a few exceptions. However, these exceptions hit Fox hard. Davis’ ruling outlined that the conspiracy theory related to the 2020 election was in fact false.

“The evidence developed in this civil process shows that (IT) makes it clear that none of the Dominion statements regarding the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote in 2023.