Fox News 'quietly scrubbed' Hunter Biden 'mock trial' series after lawsuit threat: report
Attorneys representing Hunter Biden this week sent a letter to Fox News demanding that it retract various stories that accused him of taking illegal bribes or that published sexually explicit photos of him that were discovered on his laptop computer.
Now The Daily Beast reports that Fox has "quietly scrubbed" a Hunter Biden "mock trial" series from its Fox Nation streaming service that Biden's attorneys had cited in their letter to the network as defamatory.
"The network has quietly pulled down its six-part 'mock trial' series from its digital streaming service Fox Nation after lawyers for the presidential scion warned the network of their intention to sue for defamation," reports The Daily Beast. "Besides quietly taking down The Trial of Hunter Biden from its streamer, the network also deleted a promotional video promising Fox News viewers an “inside look” at the “mock trial,” which was presided over by former reality-TV star Judge Joe Brown."
In a statement made to The Daily Beast, a Fox News spokesperson said that the network had decided to take down the content out of an "abundance of caution" and emphasized that it was "reviewing the concerns that have just been raised" by Biden's attorneys.
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Fox is still defending its coverage of the president's son overall, however.
"Hunter Biden’s lawyers have belatedly chosen to publicly attack Fox News’ constitutionally protected coverage regarding their client," the network said. "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. 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.”
Fox News got itself in serious trouble when it uncritically aired false allegations against Dominion Voting Systems after the 2020 election that were concocted by a woman from Minnesota who believes she can speak with the wind.
This wound up costing Fox dearly, as last year it agreed to settle the Dominion lawsuit for $787 million.