Murdoch said Fox hosts may have gone 'too far' in covering
stolen-election claims
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[March 08, 2023]
By Jack Queen, Helen Coster and Dawn Chmielewski
(Reuters) -Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch said that hosts Sean Hannity
and Laura Ingraham maybe “went too far” in their coverage of voter fraud
claims, according to an email in a trove of exhibits in Dominion Voting
Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox unsealed on Tuesday.
Dominion sued Fox News Networks for $1.6 billion in 2021, accusing the
cable TV network of amplifying debunked claims that Dominion voting
machines were used to rig the election against Republican Donald Trump
and in favor of his rival Joe Biden, who won the election.
The reams of documents that became public on Tuesday offer a window into
Fox’s internal deliberations as it covered the 2020 presidential
election, alienating some viewers by being the first network to project
that Biden would win the crucial state of Arizona.
The documents show top executives down to show-level producers and hosts
discussing concerns about the network’s reputation and casting doubt on
the plausibility of Trump’s claims of election fraud.
More than 6,500 pages were released on Tuesday, although the full extent
of the evidence is not clear as many filings are heavily redacted.
Fox has defended its coverage, arguing claims by Trump and his lawyers
were inherently newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution. The network said in a statement the documents show
Dominion using “distortions and misinformation” to “smear Fox News and
trample on free speech.”
The unsealed exhibits contain evidence underlying both parties’ dueling
motions for summary judgment, filed last month, in which they seek
rulings in their favor to avert a trial.
In one exhibit, Murdoch emailed Fox News President Suzanne Scott on Jan.
21, 2021, asking: “Is it ‘unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed
the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th an important
chance to have the result overturned'? Maybe Sean and Laura went too
far. All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump
but what did he tell his viewers?”
In an earlier exchange with Scott, Murdoch wrote that it had been
suggested to him that the network's primetime hosts say something like
"the election is over and Joe Biden won," according to Tuesday's
filings. Murdoch told Scott that some version of this would "go a long
way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen."
According to Dominion’s unsealed filings, Murdoch emailed a friend that
the notion state legislators could change the election outcome - an idea
then gaining traction on the right - “sound ridiculous. There’d be riots
like never before.”
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A Fox News channel sign is seen at the
News Corporation building in the Manhattan borough of New York City,
New York, U.S., June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
“Stupid and damaging," Murdoch continued, referring to a news
conference by then-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. "The only one
encouraging Trump and misleading him. Both increasingly mad. The
real danger is what he might do as president.”
These exhibits and other material included in Dominion's summary
judgment motion are part of the voting machine company’s effort to
prove the network either knew the statements it aired were false or
recklessly disregarded their accuracy. That is the standard of
“actual malice,” which public figures must prove to prevail in a
defamation case.
Fox has said that Dominion’s “extreme” interpretation of defamation
law would “stop the media in its tracks" and chill freedom of the
press.
Fox’s exhibits include more context of testimony and messages that
it says Dominion “cherry-picked” and “misrepresented” in its summary
judgment filing.
For example, Fox cites additional testimony by Fox Corp co-chairman
and CEO Lachlan Murdoch, who said under oath that he was “concerned”
but “not overly concerned” by declining ratings after the election.
Dominion has alleged Fox continued to push the stolen election
narrative because it was losing viewers to right-wing outlets that
embraced it.
In another exhibit, Fox News host Hannity - quoted by Dominion as
saying he “did not believe” Trump lawyer Sidney Powell’s claims “for
one second” during a deposition - went on to say that during the
interview he was giving her time to produce evidence but stopped
having her appear on-air after she failed to deliver.
A Dominion spokesperson said in a statement that the "emails, texts,
and deposition testimony speak for themselves. We welcome all
scrutiny of our evidence because it all leads to the same place -
Fox knowingly spread lies causing enormous damage to an American
company.”
The trial, set to begin on April 17, is slated to last five weeks.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Helen Coster in New York; Additional
reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Stephen
Coates and Noeleen Walder)
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