In a Dominion Voting Systems deposition, Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch admitted that several Fox News commentators promoted false assertions that the 2020 election had been rigged.
Murdoch's comments were made public in a court document related to Dominion's $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News. Rupert Murdoch denied in his deposition that the Fox News Channel collectively supported the false claims that then-candidate Trump used to win the presidency.
However, Murdoch admitted that his hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, and the late Lou Dobbs spread the fallacy that the presidential election had been rigged, CNN reported. Murdoch remarked that, as for the Fox News presenters' public stances on the election, "some of our hosts were endorsing it."
The Fox Corporation chair noted that he "would have liked" Fox News to be "stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight." The court document indicated Rupert Murdoch called several of Trump's campaign promises for the 2020 election "bulls**t and damaging."
The unsealed complaint reveals Murdoch's role in Fox News' editorial direction and the Trump 2020 campaign. The records state that Rupert Murdoch sent Jared Kushner, the top adviser to former President Trump and his son-in-law, "confidential" Fox information on Biden's commercials, together with "debate strategy," but that he refused to aid Donald Trump's campaign on election night when Fox News was the first network to announce that President Joe Biden won the poll in Arizona.
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Fox News Credibility in Trouble
In March of 2021, Dominion filed a lawsuit against Fox News in Delaware. According to a report published by GMA News, the 24-hour news giant allegedly pushed bogus accusations of Donald Trump that its vote-counting machines rigged the election.
Fox News has denied any intent to defame. It argues that the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech protects it since it was merely reporting on Trump's accusations and not endorsing them.
The First Amendment makes defamation cases challenging in America, but the lawsuit may hurt the right-wing network financially and reputationally. The Dominion lawsuit highlights that Fox News presenters and management knew their claims were false.
Dominion submitted a briefing last month that revealed several Fox News executives and personalities, including Tucker Carlson, denouncing ex-POTUS Donald Trump's fraudulent election allegations in private, Axios reported.
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