Fox News, NewsMax Issue Statement Taking Back Claims Of Voter Machine Fraud After Voter Machine Manufacturer Threatens To Sue

Fox News and Newsmax are taking back their claims that voting machine fraud occurred during the election after voting machine manufacturer threatens to sue. 

Playing with my ballot count is like playing with my money, or whatever Big Worm said. That’s pretty much what voting machine manufacturer Smartmatic said when it threatened news organizations with a lawsuit after they continuously attacked the company, claiming they were why voting machine fraud took place during the 2020 Presidential-election. In particular, Fox News and Newsmax have been spewing a slew of false claims against voting machine companies, Biden, the Electoral College, and poll workers.

Earlier this month, Smartmatic sent legal notices to three conservative networks for telling bald-faced lies and spreading conspiracy theories about the company. “Fox News has engaged in a concerted disinformation campaign against Smartmatic,” said the company in its 20-page demand letter sent to Fox News Media. “Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by [the late Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes.”

Not only has Smartmatic denied the claims, but the company also said it wasn’t even that heavily involved in the 2020 election as a contractor for the process in Los Angeles County. 

Fox News took back the allegations it made against Smartmatic in a three-minute segment that was aired on three of the network’s shows, including Fox Business’ “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” and Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo’s “Sunday Morning Futures” and Jeanine Pirro’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” some of the shows that heavily promoted the false claims. The segment was titled entitled “CLOSER LOOK AT CLAIMS ABOUT SMARTMATIC.” In the video, an unnamed voice starts questioning Open Source Election Technology Institute Director Eddie Perez, who is titled a “leading” authority on open source software for elections. Perez fact checks false claims about Smartmatic, Forbes reports. 

The network’s response seems to be directly connected to the possible lawsuit. However, a spokesperson for Fox News would not say whether the retraction was a part of an agreement made with Smartmatic or a direct response to the company’s request. Smartmatic told Forbes that it could not comment because of “potential litigation.”

Newsmax released its own response, saying it wanted to “clarify” the network’s coverage, adding that it “has not reported as true certain claims made about these companies. “There are certain facts our viewers and readers should be aware of,” said Tabacco, rattling off common fraud claims about Smartmatic and fellow conspiracy theory target Dominion Voter Systems that he said there is “no evidence” to support. “Dominion has stated its company has no ownership relationship with the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s family, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s family, the Clinton family, Hugo Chavez, or the government of Venezuela.”

This is very bizarre. Lou Dobbs ran a segment tonight basically debunking his own lies about Smartmatic voting machines pic.twitter.com/FDM91SPtT1

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 19, 2020

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