Biden's 'Minister of Truth' Struggles to Sue Fox News

Fox News is facing yet another legal challenge over alleged defamatory claims made by anchors on the nation's most-watched cable news network.

Nina Jankowicz, a researcher who was tapped by President Joe Biden to head his short-lived Disinformation Governance Board last year, has started a GoFundMe page to raise funds for her efforts to hold Fox News accountable "for their utter lack of regard for the truth and the consequences of their lies."

Jankowicz's appointment to the federal advisory board that was aimed at countering falsehoods threatening homeland security drew heavy backlash from conservatives, who labelled the board an Orwellian "Ministry of Truth." As a result of the public criticism, the board was "paused" less than a month after its formation and Jankowicz resigned from her position.

Jankowicz created the online fundraiser on March 2, with the goal of crowdsourcing $100,000 towards a lawsuit she wants to bring "against Fox News for their malicious, reckless lies about me." However, almost two months later, donations are just past the halfway-mark at $51,861.

In a stunning turn of events last week, Fox News reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, the voting technology company suing the network over election fraud claims it made about its election machines and staff during the 2020 presidential election. Although the last-minute agreement meant that high-profile executives and anchors wouldn't have to testify in what was expected to be a provocative trial, it was largely seen as a win for Dominion.

In the wake of the settlement, Jankowicz posted an update to her GoFundMe, saying that while she was pleased Fox News was being penalized for its defamatory remarks, she was concerned that "a large single settlement isn't enough accountability to change [the network's] business model."

"The Dominion settlement doesn't really change the calculus of how difficult it is for individuals like me to get justice when they've been wronged by a multi-billion dollar media organization," she wrote. "Despite how Fox painted me, I'm an average person—a young woman, a first-time mom, who has spent the majority of her career at non-profits and self-employed. Unlike Dominion, I am not part-owned by a private equity firm."

Jankowicz said the conservative network is unafraid of defaming smaller players like herself because the chances that they'd be held accountable are significantly lower than in the case of Dominion, arguing that as an individual with minimal financial backing, her lawyers were likely to see a large windfall from taking on her case and that it would be unlikely for her to make a profit off the lawsuit.

On her GoFundMe page, Jankowicz added that Fox News launched its "overly personalized, false, and incendiary coverage" of her as early as the day after her appointment was announced, alleging that the network made "over 500 scaremongering statements about my role, my views, and my personal life over the next nine months."

"My life has been irrevocably altered because Fox News repeatedly force-fed lies about me to tens of millions of their viewers. Tens of thousands have harassed me online. Hundreds have violently threatened me," she said.

Newsweek reached out to Jankowicz and Fox News via email for comment.

Earlier this year, Jankowicz faced the man who had been stalking her for nearly a year in an Arlington, Virginia, court, seeking a restraining order against him for harassing her and her family, Politico reported. The man is currently appealing the order.

She was also subpoenaed by Republican Representative Jim Jordan's House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Federal Government, which she claimed is "not investigating the weaponization of government; it itself is a manifestation of what it purports to investigate, and has unleashed yet another wave of hatred against me and my family."