Far right media outlets One America News (OANN) and Newsmax are being sued by voting technology giant Smartmatic for defamation.
“OANN had every opportunity to do the right thing after the 2020 election for President and Vice President of the United States. It could have reported the truth. Instead, OANN chose to do the wrong thing every time. It reported a lie,” Smartmatic’s 197-page lawsuit against Herring Networks, OANN’s parent company, said in its lawsuit, Law & Crime reports.
“Newsmax has long wanted to ascend the viewership ladder. It has now shown that it will cross legal and ethical lines to climb the ladder and push off the one at the top,” Smartmatic said in a separate lawsuit filed against Newsmax.
CNN adds that Smartmatic is also “suing Fox News, some of its hosts and pro-Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell for defamation.”
“Despite claims to provide viewers with honest, unbiased reporting, [OANN and Newsmax] victimized Smartmatic by spreading false information about the company following last year’s election, all in their efforts to increase viewership and revenue,” Smartmatic attorney J. Erik Connolly, said in a statement, according to CNN.
Smartmatic claims that Newsmax “published dozens of reports indicating that Smartmatic participated in a criminal conspiracy to rig and steal the 2020 U.S. election and that its technology and software were used to switch votes from former President Trump to now President Biden.”
In its lawsuit against OANN Smartmatic mentions MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell 84 times, and includes images from his “documentaries” (above).
“OANN was aware, or should have been aware, that Mr. Lindell is an unreliable source for information, particularly on the topic of election integrity, an area in which he has no experience,” the lawsuit charges. “When Mr. Lindell appeared on OANN broadcasts and when OANN broadcasted Mr. Lindell’s self-produced ‘documentaries,’ OANN knew that it did not have any evidence to support his claims about Smartmatic. Nonetheless, OANN did not tell its audience about Mr. Lindell’s lack of experience in election integrity or Mr. Lindell’s credibility and bias problems.”
Voting technology company Dominion is also suing the two cable channels.
Monday, as Law & Crime’s Adam Klasfeld notes, Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson was slammed on social media for falsely spreading vaccine disinformation. She appears in Smartmatic’s lawsuit against Newsmax 16 times, he says: