| Did the hosts of the country’s most popular cable news network know that Trump’s lies about the election were untrue?  Photograph by Mark Peterson / Redux What has been dubbed “the defamation trial of the century” began with a delay. On Monday, the judge in the case of Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network, being held in Wilmington, Delaware, confirmed an earlier announcement that opening statements would be a pushed a day. He also said, speaking to a courtroom full of journalists, that “this is not a press conference.” Yet, as Clare Malone reports back from the scene, most everything in and around the trial rates as a media storm. In a must-read explanation of the case, Malone breaks down the “notoriously difficult standard” of “actual malice” that Dominion has to prove Fox acted with when it repeatedly aired falsehoods about the 2020 election. Bold-face names such as Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity are expected to testify, but Malone points to a lesser-known figure who might play a key role for Dominion: Abby Grossberg, a former Fox News producer who appeared to be a true believer of the “big steal” lies. “He’s brilliant,” Grossberg once wrote of the former Trump national-security adviser Michael Flynn, who was pushing extreme theories. But, recently, Grossberg claimed that she was coached by Fox News’ lawyers to give misleading answers during her deposition. Oh, and she’s currently suing her former employer. We’ll be covering all the drama as it unfolds in the days and weeks ahead. More on Dominion v. Fox News | 
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