Fed judge dismisses defamation suit filed against Fox news by govt official

A defamation suit against Fox News by a government official who served on a short-lived US government media disinformation board was dismissed on Monday by a federal judge.

The lawsuit from Nina Jankowicz alleged that Fox had defamed her on numerous occasions, leading to waves of online attacks and threats of violence after the formation of the Disinformation Governance Board, where she served as a director.

In May of 2022, just weeks after its launch, the Department of Homeland Security paused the board's work and accepted Jankowicz's resignation. The board was officially dissolved and its charter rescinded in August of that same year.

In rejecting Jankowicz's claims, the judge said that 36 of the 37 statements made on Fox News programmes were about the disinformation board and not Jankowicz. The judge ruled that the remaining statement which was also a reference to the board and not Jankowicz, despite showing an image of her as it was said was not disinformation because it was a