Rupert Murdoch says Fox News hosts endorsed false election fraud claims

Rupert Murdoch Says Some Fox News Hosts 'endorsed' Trump's False Election Fraud Claims

Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said some anchors of the company's TV networks parroted false fraud claims in the months following the 2020 election.

In new filings as part of Dominion's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox and its networks, Murdoch said he doubted the claims aired on Fox News and Fox Business Network.

The filings show Murdoch and other Fox executives remained close to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott during the election coverage.

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Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said some anchors of the company's TV networks parroted false fraud claims in the months following the 2020 election, according to new court papers out Monday.

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In new filings as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox and its networks, Murdoch said he doubted the election fraud claims being aired on Fox News and Fox Business Network.

Murdoch also acknowledged that Fox's TV hosts endorsed the false election fraud claims. In unveiled question and answers from Murdoch's deposition, when Murdoch was asked if he was "now aware that Fox endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election," Murdoch responded, "Not Fox, no. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria [Bartiromo] as commentators."

"Some of our commentators were endorsing it," Murdoch said in his responses during the deposition. "They endorsed."

Dominion sued Fox and its right-wing cable networks, Fox News and Fox Business, arguing the networks and its personalities made false claims that its voting machines rigged the results of the 2020 election. Fox News has consistently denied that it knowingly made false claims about the election, and has said "the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech."

In earlier court papers, Fox said that the past year of discovery has shown the company played "no role in the creation and publication of the challenged statements -- all of which aired on either Fox Business Network or Fox News Channel."

Murdoch and his son, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, as well as Fox's chief legal and policy officer Viet Dinh, were questioned in connection with the lawsuit in recent months. Earlier in February court papers were released that showed snippets of the evidence Dominion gathered through the months-long process of discovery and depositions, which also included Fox TV personalities.

Text messages and testimony have shown Fox executives and Fox's TV anchors were skeptical about claims that the election between Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Trump, a Republican, was rigged.

Dominion said in court papers filed Monday that Fox's defense that the statements made were opinion "goes nowhere."

"Even if some of Fox's hosts' statements could qualify as 'opinions,' they are still actionable if—as here—they are based on false or undisclosed facts," Dominion said.

A representative for Fox News reiterated in a statement on Monday that Dominion mischaracterized the facts by cherry-picking soundbites: "When Dominion is not mischaracterizing the law, it is mischaracterizing the facts."

Fox has also targeted Dominion's private-equity owner in court papers regarding Dominion's request for $1.6 billion in damages, saying the firm "paid a small fraction of that amount" to buy Dominion. Fox has also said in court papers the $1.6 billion figure has no connection to Dominion's financial value.

"Dominion's lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny, as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims," said a Fox spokesperson in a statement Monday. "Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment."

A Dominion spokesperson said Monday, "The damages claim remains. As Fox well knows, our damages exceed $1.6 billion."

Dominion brought its lawsuit not only against the TV networks, but parent company Fox Corp., arguing the parent company and its top executives played a role in the spread of misinformation about voter fraud by Fox's personalities. A Delaware judge had ruled Dominion's case could be expanded beyond the networks to include Fox Corp.

Monday's court filings show Murdoch and other Fox executives remained close to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott during the election coverage.

"I'm a journalist at heart. I like to be involved in these things," Murdoch said during his deposition testimony, according to court papers.

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Earlier court papers have shown top anchors including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham expressed disbelief in Sidney Powell, a pro-Trump attorney who aggressively promoted claims of election fraud, at the time.

Paul Ryan, the former Republican speaker of the House and a Fox board member, also sat for questioning as part of the lawsuit. Court papers out Monday show Ryan said that "these conspiracy theories were baseless," and that the network "should labor to dispel conspiracy theories if and when they pop up."

Ryan also told both Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch "that Fox News should not be spreading conspiracy theories," according to the filings.

Dominion alleges that Fox News anchors were feeling pressure from the audience and related to rival right-wing networks like Newsmax, fueling on-air fraud claims.

The court papers have also shown other glimpses of the network's internal response to the events that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a violent mob breached the U.S. Capitol in support of then-President Donald Trump.

Fox executives shut down Trump's attempt to appear on the network's air that evening, after he dialed into on-air personality Lou Dobbs' show in the afternoon, court filings show.

That same evening, Carlson texted his producer calling Trump "a demonic force. A destroyer. But he's not going to destroy us," referring to Fox's network and its audience, court papers show.

Meanwhile, the night before Jan. 6, court papers showed, Murdoch told Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, "it's been suggested our prime time three should independently or together say something like 'the election is over and Joe Biden won.'"

The lawsuit is being closely monitored by First Amendment watchdogs and experts. Libel lawsuits are typically focused on one falsehood, but in this case Dominion cites a lengthy list of examples of Fox TV hosts making false claims even after they were proven to be untrue. Media companies are often broadly protected by the First Amendment.

A status conference in the case is slated for next week, and the trial is set to begin in mid-April.

Rupert Murdoch Says Fox TV Hosts ‘endorsed’ False Election Claims

 © Provided by Al Jazeera Fox chairperson Rupert Murdoch, seen here at an event in 2019, said in a deposition that popular hosts on Fox News endorsed false claims about the 2020 election [File: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo]

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has acknowledged that some Fox News commentators advanced false allegations from former United States President Donald Trump and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, according to excerpts of a deposition unsealed on Monday.

The documents also reveal that the Fox Corporation (FC) chairperson did not step in to stop them from promoting the unsubstantiated election claims. Those falsehoods and the company’s handling of them are at the heart of a defamation lawsuit against the cable news giant by Dominion Voting Systems.

The recently unsealed documents include excerpts from a deposition in which Murdoch was asked about whether he was aware that some of the network’s commentators — Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity — at times endorsed the false election claims.

Murdoch replied, “Yes. They endorsed.”

The Murdoch deposition is the latest filing in the defamation case to reveal concerns at the top-rated network over how it handled Trump’s claims. Fox News’s ratings plummeted after the network announced that Democrat Joe Biden had won the key battleground state of Arizona, angering Trump and his supporters.

An earlier filing showed a gulf between the stolen election narrative the network aired in primetime and the doubts raised by its stars behind the scenes. In one text from November 16, 2020, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that Trump lawyer “Sidney Powell is lying” about having evidence of election fraud.

The Dominion case is the latest example to show that those spreading false information about the 2020 election knew there was no evidence to support it.

The now-disbanded House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol disclosed that many of Trump’s top advisers repeatedly warned him that his fraud allegations were false — and yet the president continued making the claims.

In September 2020, weeks before the election, Murdoch urged that Dobbs, one of Fox’s hosts, be fired because he was “an extremist”, according to Dominion’s court filing.

Murdoch also said he thought it was “really bad” for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to be advising Trump because Giuliani’s “judgment was bad” and he was “an extreme partisan”, according to a deposition excerpt.

Both Giuliani and Powell made appearances on Fox News as part of Trump’s team. Murdoch was asked whether he could have requested that they not be put on the air. “I could have. But I didn’t,” he replied.

Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, which sells electronic voting hardware and software, is suing the Fox News Network (FNN) and its parent company Fox Corporation for defamation.

Dominion contends that some Fox News employees deliberately amplified false claims by Trump supporters that its machines had changed votes in the 2020 election, and that Fox provided a platform for guests to make false and defamatory statements about the company.

Dominion lawyers contend that executives in the “chain of command” at both Fox News and Fox Corporation knew the network was broadcasting “known lies, had the power to stop it, but chose to let it continue. That was wrong, and for that, FC and FNN are both liable.”

Lawyers for the Fox Corporation note in their filing that Murdoch also testified that he never discussed Dominion or voter fraud with any of the accused Fox News hosts. They say Dominion has produced “zero evidentiary support” for the claim that high-level executives at Fox Corporation had any role in creating or publishing the statements at issue.

Dominion’s contention that the company should be held liable because Murdoch might have had the power to step in and prevent the challenged statements from being aired “has no basis in defamation law”, they said.

Fox Corporation lawyers warned that such a ruling “would obliterate the distinction between corporate parents and subsidiaries”.

The “handful of selective quotes” cited by Dominion have nothing to do with the statements that Dominion has challenged as defamatory, the lawyers continued.

“Dominion repeatedly asked Fox News executives, hosts, and staff whether Fox Corporation employees played a role in the publication of the statements it challenges,” they wrote. “The answer — every single time, for every single witness — was no.”

Meanwhile, lawyers for Fox News note that when voting-technology companies denied the allegations being made by Trump and his surrogates, the network aired those denials, while some hosts offered protected opinion commentary about Trump’s allegations.

Murdoch Says Fox Hosts 'Endorsed' False Election Claim

Rupert Murdoch was deposed in a defamation lawsuit brought by vote machine maker Dominion against Fox News Drew Angerer

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Media mogul Rupert Murdoch admitted in a deposition that hosts on his Fox News network promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, court documents show.

The 91-year-old billionaire said some anchors had "endorsed" the falsehood, according to a filing by vote machine maker Dominion, which is suing Fox for defamation.

Murdoch denied though that the conservative network in its entirety had pushed Trump's baseless claim that he had lost to Joe Biden because of widespread fraud.

"Not Fox, No. Not Fox. But maybe Lou Dobbs, maybe Maria (Bartiromo), as commentators," Murdoch said under oath last month.

The media titan added that he had been doubtful of Trump's claims, in the document released late Monday.

"I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight," Murdoch testified.

The messages submitted to a US court could prove damaging to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network Drew Angerer

Dominion sued Fox News in a Delaware court in March 2021 for $1.6 billion.

It alleges that the 24-hour news behemoth promoted Trump's false claims that its machines were used to rig the election.

The company argues that Fox News began endorsing Trump's narrative because the channel was losing its audience after it became the first TV outlet to call Arizona for Biden, projecting the Democrat would win the presidency.

Fox News denies committing defamation. It claims it was only reporting on Trump's allegations, not supporting them, and is protected by the First Amendment's protection of free speech.

It can be difficult for plaintiffs to win defamation suits in America due to the First Amendment but the case risks inflicting significant financial and reputational damage on the right-wing network.

Dominion will have to prove that Fox News acted with actual malice, a tough burden to meet. The case could go to a civil trial if the parties do not settle.

"When Dominion is not mischaracterizing the law, it is mischaracterizing the facts," said a spokesperson for Fox News.

"Dominion cherry-picks any soundbite it can find from any corner of the Fox organization even though it admits in its brief -- 117 pages later -- that most of that evidence is utterly irrelevant," she added.

Trump repeated his baseless claims on his site Truth Social and said Fox "look too scared and frightened to reveal the massive amounts of voter fraud and irregularities already found."

"Why is Rupert Murdoch throwing his anchors under the table, which also happens to be killing his case and infuriating his viewers, who will again be leaving in droves -- they already are," he wrote.

Dominion has also sued former Trump advisors Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

A court filing released earlier this month showed that Murdoch had described comments by Giuliani and Powell pushing Trump's claims as "really crazy stuff. And damaging."

The Barron's news department was not involved in the creation of the content above. This story was produced by AFP. For more information go to AFP.Com.© Agence France-Presse

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