GEOFF BENNETT: Jury selection started today in Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation suit against FOX News.

The voting technology company is suing the right-wing network for repeatedly airing debunked conspiracy theories that its voting machines were rigged against Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

NPR's media correspondent, David Folkenflik, is following the case and joins us now.

David, thank you for being with us.

David, as this case goes to trial, the judge has already rejected several of the First Amendment defenses that FOX hoped to invoke.

And he also took the extraordinary step of admonishing and sanctioning the FOX defense team.

Help us understand why and what it might mean for this case.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK, NPR: What we have heard in recent days is that judge's increasing frustration with the accretion of incidents in which he has concluded that FOX has been less than forthcoming with the court.

What does that mean?

Well, take an instance where, for example, there had been numerous representations, per the judge's account, that Rupert Murdoch, the founder of FOX News, the guy at the very top of the pyramid for its parent company, FOX Corp., the ultimate boss did not have a formal official role at FOX News itself.

He may have been weighing in, as we have learned from all these texts and e-mails that have emerged in recent months of evidence.

Early this week, lawyers for FOX acknowledged that Rupert Murdoch held the title of executive chairman of FOX News, which sounds like just an honorific.

And that's certainly what FOX is going to argue.

But in the judge's assessment, it suggests that Rupert Murdoch has agency and influence over how this network operates, and particularly in this moment of crisis following the election in 2020.

GEOFF BENNETT: David, this case has been notable for its unprecedented window into the inner workings of FOX News.

E-mails, text messages introduced as evidence show FOX personalities like Tucker Carlson privately insulting former President Donald Trump.

There was all sorts of private skepticism among some of the FOX anchors and executives about the election fraud claims that were showing up on air.

Given that sort of embarrassing exposure, why hasn't FOX tried to settle this case?

DAVID FOLKENFLIK: Neither side will talk publicly about this.

Certainly, Dominion indicated on the front end of this trial many, many, many, many months ago that it did not intend to settle this case, and certainly intend to want to take this to trial.

Why?

Well, the pain threshold increases at every point along the way, as it's turned out, because the -- it's not just embarrassing what we have learned about FOX.

It's damning.

There are two separate stories that people -- somebody like me is covering right now, right?

There's the actual litigation, the trial itself, on the legal merits that the jury gets to weigh in on and ultimately decide on, right, unless it's settled before then or dropped before then.

But there's also the almost forensic, archaeological look we're getting at FOX in almost real time, in a complete 360 nature, from the most junior producers, to the stars, to the executives, to the corporate chieftains and bosses above, all of them weighing in on this moment of crisis, triggered by FOX not only presenting its viewership and audiences with the unwanted news that it was projecting that challenger Joe Biden would win Arizona, and not Donald Trump, on election night itself, but actually FOX being the first TV station in the country to do so.

That was not news that its audience wanted.

And it wasn't news that it wanted particularly from FOX.

And, as a result, you saw this desperate chase of anything that might appease the viewers.

And it turned out that lying about Dominion was one of those things.

GEOFF BENNETT: So what are the potential long-term consequences for FOX News, David?

Because, in the short term, their ratings are up.

The stock price has remained stable.

Advertisers have stuck around.

And just this past week, Donald Trump was on Tucker Carlson's program, despite Tucker Carlson saying about him in private, calling him a demonic force, a destroyer.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK: A purely transactional relationship, and one that is consistent with these strong currents of cynicism coursing through so much of the communications that we have been able to examine from inside FOX News itself.

Look, FOX could win this case.

It could win its case on legal merits.

It could win it on an appeal to First Amendment principles, saying, basically, look, the First Amendment and free speech needs running room.

Even if we didn't do this exactly the way you would want, even if there was something inexact about what we said, as well as what our guests said, they can appeal to the jury and try to get them on this.

And if you have one or two jurors that are already fairly pro-Trump, you can create scenarios in which they win.

The legal ramifications could be huge to the bottom line if they lose.

And media lawyers and scholars tell me that this is among the most seemingly overwhelming amassing of evidence to suggest that a plaintiff has met this tough bar of actual malice that they have ever seen.

And you could also have the other ramifications.

Inside the FOX bubble in the way that you have described, it may not hurt FOX.

Inside the hardest sort of MAGA elements of the Republican Party and its viewership, they may stand by FOX for now.

But I think, outside FOX, you have seen an extraordinary reputational hit.

It's very difficult to sit by and listen to people to talk about FOX as a news organization that happens to have some conservative opinion hosts, when we have seen the way in which journalists and news imperatives and the idea of presenting people with the fact as an imperative be belittled, diminished, and attacked by people inside FOX from the very bottom to the very top of the pyramid.

GEOFF BENNETT: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik.

David, thanks again for your time.

DAVID FOLKENFLIK: You bet.