On the surface of it this does seem very odd. The reason relates to one of these strange and little known oddities of the law. It turns out that if you want to actually win a defamation action then it’s a lot easier when the defendants have actually defamed you. If on the other hand the organisation you want to sue has largely reported actual facts, then winning a defamation case can be kind of tricky.
So when Fox deliberately and persistently lied about Dominion then they were very clearly guilty. In contrast CNN reporting on the “Russian hoax” involved reporting a set of largely true facts. Oddly this isn’t actually illegal. Even if Trumpists jump up and down and scream “hoax, hoax!” every five minutes that still doesn’t change facts into lies.
So no one is going after CNN because they’d get laughed out of court and end up with nothing to show for it other than a very large lawyer’s bill.
