Fox News pulls down series as Hunter Biden threatens lawsuit
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fox News has pulled down a six-part series in which it staged a mock trial of hypothetical criminal charges against Hunter Biden after the president's son threatened to sue the network.
The series, which was first posted on the cable network's right-wing streaming service back in October 2022, was removed only a day after Biden's legal team publicly made its threat. Biden says the network defamed him, among other accusations.
"We are reviewing the concerns that have just been raised and — out of an abundance of caution in the interim — have taken it down," Fox News Media said in acknowledging the decision Tuesday afternoon.
The media giant's move came just hours after it released a statement denouncing Biden's accusations, describing its coverage of him as within its constitutional rights.
Fox News paid $787.5 million a year ago to settle a mammoth defamation suit stemming from its amplification of false claims that Dominion Voting Systems, an election tech company, had helped rig the 2020 election in favor of President Biden. It is facing a multi-billion dollar lawsuit from a second voting tech company, though the network says it expects to prevail.
In 2020, Fox paid millions to the parents of Seth Rich, a slain Democratic party staffer . The network falsely had claimed Rich leaked thousands of emails from party leaders during the 2016 election cycle. Formal inquiries, including the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee and the Mueller Report, found the hack was committed by people acting on behalf of the Russian government.
Hunter Biden does face federal charges over tax and gun violations. He has pleaded not guilty to both, with trials expected to begin this summer.
On Monday, his legal team revealed it had been privately pressuring Fox to retract stories and segments amplifying unsubstantiated claims that Biden helped funnel millions of dollars in bribes to the president from Ukrainian interests. Those allegations were featured hundreds of times by such Fox stars as Maria Bartiromo and Jesse Watters , according to figures from the liberal watchdog group Media Matters that were cited by Biden's attorneys.
A key source of those claims about Hunter Biden now faces federal charges of lying to the FBI about those very allegations. The indictment stated that the source, Alexander Smirnov, had admitted that "officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved" in circulating the claims.
Fox stood by its past handling of the allegations against Hunter Biden in its initial response to his letter demanding removal of the mock-trial series and corrections to other segments.
"Hunter Biden's lawyers have belatedly chosen to publicly attack Fox News' constitutionally protected coverage regarding their client," Fox News said in a statement emailed Tuesday morning to NPR and other news outlets. "Mr. Biden is a public figure who has been the subject of investigations by both the Department of Justice and Congress, has been indicted by two different US Attorney's Offices in California and Delaware, and has admitted to multiple incidents of wrongdoing."
The statement continued: "Consistent with the First Amendment, Fox News has accurately covered these highly publicized events as well as the subsequent indictment of an FBI informant who was the source of certain claims made about Mr. Biden."
U.S. law makes it harder for people considered public figures to win defamation lawsuits. If Biden were to make good on his threat to sue Fox News, he would have to show that the network knew that what it was airing was untrue, or that it had acted with such reckless disregard for the facts that it should have known.
"The Trial of Hunter Biden" on Fox Nation offered a fictionalized version of what a trial against the younger Biden might look like. The television personality overseeing it, Judge Joe Brown, warned viewers that what they were seeing was not a real trial and that Hunter Biden was not facing charges.
Biden's attorneys include Mark Geragos, Bryan Freedman, and Tina Glandian, who have a reputation for aggressive tactics.
In the letter to Fox, they argued that it had engaged in "revenge porn" by airing scandalous material taken from Biden's now-infamous laptop , which included footage and images of him consuming crack cocaine and cavorting with prostitutes.
They issued a fresh statement late Tuesday afternoon accusing Fox of continuing to mislead the public:
"In its statement, Fox falsely states that Hunter Biden was the subject of an investigation by Congress, which mischaracterizes the plain facts of his litigation, and intentionally avoids telling their audience that their attacks on Hunter were 'based' on an informant who lied," Biden's legal team stated. "We demand that Fox immediately retract and correct today's statement, which is the latest example of its relentless attack on Hunter Biden in complete disregard for the truth."
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“Will no one rid us of this mendacious press?” (apol. to the Bard)
What the fuck is this obsession with Hunter Biden? MTG was showing Hunter dick pics, they're doing hypothetical series regarding him - they're so batshit crazy to get something, anything on Joe, that they're going after all they have, nothing.
That's faux news and the gop/gqp for ya - their relentless attack on Hunter Biden and fill in the blank _____________ any and all things Biden - in complete disregard for the truth.
looks like fake news can now cost real money...
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It should
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it's the downside of the FOX reasoning that lying is free speech...
When did crackheads become "public figures"?
Since Fox Spews created Hunter as a "public figure" with no valid evidence, they are likely running scared right about now.
Just like Trump, Fox can't afford to lose any more law suits.
Y'all made him a public figure.
Yeah, try again.
I really wonder what makes people think CNN and MSNBC are any better on covering the Bidens because they certainly are not! They treat Biden like he walks in water.
It's all about the narrative. They've run with the "Orange man bad" for so long that those who continually watch CNN and MSNBC fell for the gaslighting.
As Traitor Joe ask:
You should ask Mike Lindell that question.
So you can't answer my question either.
I answered your question. You just don't like the answer because the crackhead I referred to is one of your own.
No you deflected and quite obviously at that.
Yeah, no you didn't. You deflected.
Try giving an answer and not a deflection next time.
and Donny Jr
If you didn't like my answer, that's a you problem. Lindell is a crackhead and one of yours. Deal with it.
See 2.3.6
So you can't answer my question either.
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Here's your answer. He's not a public figure because he's a crackhead. He's a public figure because of who his father is, but you already knew that thus your question was disingenuous to begin with.
You deflected. Probably because you can't answer it.
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Ask a stupid question that you already know the answer to, then get those type of answers back. You know your question was disingenuous which is why you push so hard for other people to answer it. All this question shows is that you're just looking for attention.
And look how many people had trouble answering it.
No one had trouble answering it because everyone knew it was a disingenuous question. You received the answers you deserved.
No one had trouble answering it. You received answers that your disingenuous question deserved. Now, go beg someone else for the attention you crave.
LOL
A "public figure" is simply someone who is generally known by the public.
There is no requirement that a public figure NOT be a crackhead, NOT be a convicted felon, NOT be a certain color, etc.
It is simply notoriety.
So, Wishful's example of Mike Lindell is spot on to illustrate that a drug problem does not prevent one from being a public figure. Lindell is a public figure ... name and image recognized by many in the public ... and he has a history of drug addiction problems.
But damned if he doesn't make a nice pillow!...
Given what I have seen of this guy, I expect his pillow to be nothing special. All marketing, no substance.
Of course, fluff actually is what one wants in a pillow so maybe Lindell was in the right business anyway (until he destroyed it with his cultish devotion to Trump).
Yeah that was strange, might be residual cognitive damage from the earlier drug abuse. He actually put his business at risk with all that.
My wife actually bought some of his pillows several years ago. They are nice and worked for getting rid of my neck pain caused by other pillows.
Well since the product appears good, it is a shame the company was run by a nutcase. A good product and all those jobs harmed by his mental failures.
severe coke addiction rewires the brain and not in a good way. I watched it take out lots of people in the 80's.
seriously, look at donnie, jr. and that freak of a girlfriend
the poor gold digger, that's what happens when they get too old to strip...
time for jr to trade her in for a newer unit...
... and a lot less miles. she's like the hertz rental of trump bimbos...
poor thing can't find the brass pole on that stage...
I'm sure the word lawsuit scares the hell out of Fox....
their pending lawsuits as defendants pipeline is full for the next couple years...
no shit.
Justifiable fear is more like it.
All outlets of fascist propaganda should fear the light.
'fear the light' - [Deleted][✘]
Biden says the network defamed him
Give yourself more credit you crack smoking, child ignoring, name peddling, syphilis riddled moron. You defamed yourself all by yourself
Then why did they pull it down? Are they afraid losing hundreds of millions of dollars to the deep state Bidenistas?
Concerned Daddy will send DOJ after them maybe.
Maybe everyone that wanted to see it saw it and they didn't want to spend the money hiring lawyers to show what a low life scum bucket Hunter is.
But I am sure he would be happy to have people defending him.
We can safely assume that Fox will never show this Hunter Biden series. That fact that they took it down is, at the very least, a tacit admission that it is false and defamatory.
Where in the world is it okay to make up shit about people and make a 'TV show' about it based on lies? MAGAts act like Hunter has no right to not have his life totally upheaved and fucked over the by cons. Defamed and debased constantly.
Do you watch any TV?
It has been out a year and a half. Doesn't make sense to spend alot of time winning a lawsuit over a show that anyone that wanted to see it already has.
But it is heartwarming to see the folks defend such scum.
like the GOP's defense of trump from 6/2015 to present...
Sad deflection attempt.
fact.
Fiction
Or a realization there are plenty of other shows about moronic politicians and their degenerate kids.
gee, FOX's settlement negotiations on the $1.6 billion dollar smartmatic defamation lawsuit must have hit a snag...
Yeah, donnie trump, jr. and that freakshow of a girlfriend.