Governor Newsom of California Prepares to Act on His Warning to Fox News
California Governor Gavin Newsom has taken legal action against Fox News and host Jesse Watters, filing a defamation lawsuit over coverage of a disputed phone call between Newsom and former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit, seeking $787 million in damages, alleges that Fox News falsely stated Newsom lied about the call, a claim Newsom vehemently denies.
The lawsuit contends that Watters lied about the timeline of communications between Newsom and Trump. However, Fox News defends its coverage, maintaining that Newsom had made an "unqualified assertion" that no call occurred, which was false since they had spoken just days before. Fox News has filed for dismissal, citing that the case was filed in Delaware, far from California, to avoid California’s anti-SLAPP statute that protects media from meritless defamation lawsuits.
In a move to resolve the matter, Newsom's legal team has proposed voluntarily dismissing the lawsuit if Fox admits to falsely misrepresenting the timeline of the phone call with Trump. Fox News host Jesse Watters has issued an apology, but it was described as curt, sarcastic, and offloading as much blame as possible. Despite this, Watters admitted that he took Newsom's tweet to mean there was no call ever between them.
However, Newsom's office insists that the misrepresentation of the timeline of communications was an intentional manipulation of fact. Trump sent a screenshot of his June 7 call log to Fox News anchor John Roberts in response to Newsom's denial. Newsom's attorneys have written a letter to Fox, demanding a formal on-air apology for the lie spread about Governor Newsom.
Newsom has expressed his concern about the incident, stating that Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying marines onto our streets doesn't even know who he's talking to. He is looking forward to the discovery process in court and has stated that there was no call or voicemail between him and Trump on June 10, the date Trump claimed they had spoken.
The lawsuit is a significant development in the ongoing tension between Newsom and Fox News, and it remains to be seen how the court will rule on the matter. Fox News, in its response, has labelled the lawsuit a "political stunt" and a "spectacle" intended to silence criticism and evade legal protections for free speech.
- The ongoing lawsuit between California Governor Gavin Newsom and Fox News, caused by allegations of defamation over coverage of a disputed phone call, is evidently intertwined with broader factors such as politics, policy-and-legislation, and war-and-conflicts, as it touches upon issues of power, communication, and accountability.
- The controversy surrounding the alleged misrepresentation of the timeline of phone communications between Newsom and former President Donald Trump has escalated into a general-news story, encompassing crime-and-justice elements, with both parties involved arguing over the truth of the events and the intention behind the media coverage.
