Fox News 'fact-checks' earlier reports on Dominion voting machines following Smartmatic's threats, a report said on Monday.
Last Dec. 14, The Blaze reported that Smartmatic accused Fox News of defamation and demanded retractions alongside threats of lawsuits to which the later explained being a "victim of a 'disinformation campaign'" regarding the 2020 election.
Smartmatic were said to have sent legal notices that demanded retraction of Smartmatic's involvement in the cases of election fraud that have surfaced since the Nov. 3 election in the US. The software company also sent Newsmax and One America News Network a similar letter, as per The Blaze.
In particular, Smartmatic mentioned a report of Fox News wherein it "told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by 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".
Known for its design and election security technology, Smartmatic has been pinpointed with Dominion Voting Systems by former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell to have been part of the election fraud that caused votes from President Donald Trump to be flipped into that of former Vice President Joseph Biden resulting in his win during the elections.
The Blaze said Smartmatic issued a statement denying what Powell said. It also clarified in the statement that it has any relations with Dominion Voting Systems.
"Smartmatic had nothing to do with the 'controversies' that certain public and private figures have alleged regarding the 2020 U.S. election. Multiple fact-checkers have consistently debunked these false statements with stunning consistency and regularity," Smartmatic said in their official statement.
After receiving the said legal threats from Smartmatic, Fox News ran a segment on "fact check" negating claims of Smartmatic's involvement in the alleged election fraud. The segment was first shown in Fox Business Channel's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" wherein prior statements stated by anchors of the media outfit were retracted, as per The Blaze.
Vox Associate Editor Aaron Rupar hit on the clip taken from the Lou Dobbs Tonight's fact check through his Twitter account.
"This is very bizarre. Lou Dobbs ran a segment tonight basically debunking his own lies about Smartmatic voting machines," Rupar said.
Then followed through with another tweet, "The Dobbs segment debunking his own election fraud lies ended without any commentary from Dobbs himself. They just cut to a commercial."
In the said segment, leading open source software for elections authority Eddie Perez was interviewed regarding his take on the Smartmatic controversy. The Blaze said that during the said interview "the clip then cut to Perez being interviewed by someone--clearly not Dobbs, although the interviewer was not identified--asking Perez questions about the Smartmatic controversy."
The clip, as per The Blaze, actually went viral and many found it odd because of this unusual changes in how the segment was done and how the host behaved.
In addition, The Blaze also enlisted what Perez said during the interview such as "Smartmatic software was not used anywhere in the United States outside Los Angeles County," "Dominion and Smartmatic are separate companies," "there is no evidence that Smartmatic sent United States votes to foreign countries for tabulation," and he "has not seen any evidence that Smartmatic software was used to flip votes in the 2020 presidential election or any other election."
The Guardian, on the other hand, reported that Smartmatic Attorney Erik Connolly would not comment on Fox News' "fact check" segment "due to potential litigation".
Meanwhile, Newsmax denied the claims of Smartmatic against them through a statement sent to CNN, The Guardian cited.
"As any major media outlet, we provide a forum for public concerns and discussion. In the past we have welcomed Smartmatic and its representatives to counter such claims they believe to be inaccurate and will continue to do so," Newsmax clarified.
One America News Network, however, has been silent on the matter. Their last report involving Smartmatic was last Dec. 7, which involved the Chairman of Smartmatic's parent company Mark Malloch-Brown being appointed as George Soros' Open Society Foundation President.
