Fox News Hosts Endorsed Election Fraud
The Fox News Outburst: Investigating the Claims against Tech Company in the ‘Missing Your Eyes on Fox News’
The claims against the election tech company came up again and again on Fox News despite the fact that the Wall Street Journal was sending thousands of communications to disproving the false claims. The Murdoch family owns Fox News as well as the Wall Street Journal. Dominion says it sent more than 3,600 communications to Fox staffers taking issue with the false claims of election fraud.
There was at least one set of messages in the court filing where Carlson said that Sidney Powell, an attorney representing the campaign, was lying and he had caught her doing so. I think SIDney is a complete nut. She will not be worked with by anyone. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani].”
On election night, Fox News was the first news outlet to declare Joseph R. Biden Jr. The winner of Arizona is expected to become the next president. With Mr. Trump refusing to concede that he had lost, he and his supporters turned against Fox, and the network’s ratings fell. Soon, many of the most popular hosts and shows on Fox began promoting the outlandish claims that Dominion machines were an integral part of a far-reaching voter fraud conspiracy to deny Mr. Trump a second term.
Fox’s attorneys say that the suit is an attempt to penalize the news network for reporting on a big story of the day. The network says it could dissuade journalists in the future from reporting allegations “inconvenient to Dominion—and other companies.”
► Murdoch said it was “wrong” for Tucker Carlson to host conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell after the election. Murdoch denied it was a decision to allow the MyPillow CEO to appear on Fox News. He said that it is not red or blue. That’s a shocking admission from Murdoch about what actually guides coverage at Fox News.
The lawsuit said thatGrossberg felt a sinking feeling in her stomach after seeing how pervasive the misogyny and drive to objectify women was among the male staff.
A person with direct knowledge of the matter told CNN that Heinrich was blindsided reading the details in the legal filing and was not aware of the efforts by top hosts behind the scenes to get her fired.
Neil Cavuto was attacked by his colleagues at Fox News for pulling his show away from a presentation by White House spokeswoman Kayleigh Mcenany, who made false claims of fraud once more. (McEnany is now a host on Fox News.)
► Murdoch asked Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to have Hannity say “something supportive” about Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham ahead of the 2020 election. Murdoch said they can’t lose the Senate. Murdoch had directed the head of his talk network to help the GOP. This type of directive from an executive would be a huge scandal at an actual news network.
The court filing revealed that some of the top talent at Fox News have been criticized. The network president said that the North Koreans did a more nuanced show than Lou Dobbs did. Jerry Andrews, the executive producer of “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” referred to host Jeanine Pirro as “nuts.”
The Fox News Off-Air Attacks on Donald Trump: The Case Against Murdoch and the Fox Co-Adversarial Campaign
Jason Koerner/Getty Images; Jason Koerner/Getty Images; Carolyn Kaster/AP; Alex Brandon/AP; Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images; Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images
Off the air, the network’s stars, producers and executives expressed contempt for those same conspiracies, calling them “mind-blowingly nuts,” “totally off the rails” and “completely bs” – often in far earthier terms.
The messages show that Tucker, Sean, and Laura ridiculed the lies being said by the camp of Donald Trump.
The network’s Washington managing editor privately wrote on December 2, 2020, ” it’s remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things.” The executives above him were upset with the hit to Fox News’ brand. Yet there was little apparent concern, other than some inquiries from Fox Corp founder Rupert Murdoch, over the journalistic values of fairness and accuracy.
“The fact that there was arguably a motive by Fox to publish these accusations against Dominion based on its own economic interests in retaining Trump viewers would, if believed by the jury, probably destroy that argument,” Chen says.
Fox invited Trump ally and attorney Sidney Powell, who is also an ally of the president, on its programs, to charge that the voting systems had switched votes from Trump to Biden. Yet Fox hosts and executives privately dismissed her as unreliable and unhinged. Powell had shared with hosts Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo a memo to justify her allegations. The author of the memo called the claims “bizarre”.
The cable network’s attorneys told the public in a separate filing that the damages request was made to “generate headlines” and to enrich the private equity fund that owns the company.
Fox News and the January 6, 2020 Attack: Lou Dobbs Tells Lou: Is There Evidence of Campaigning in the Fox News Correlations?
On Nov. 5, 2020, just days after the election, Bret Baier, the network’s chief political anchor texted a friend: “[T]here is NO evidence of fraud. None. There are allegations and stories. The account of social media platform, Twitter. Bulls—.
Lou Dobbs, a former host of Fox Business, said he had never seen any evidence of support for the company owned by a second voting-tech company. That claim was repeatedly said on air by Fox hosts. Dobbs also said he was aware of no evidence that Dominion rigged the election, according to Dominion’s legal filings.
Sammon declined to comment on the terms of his departure, citing them as his reason for leaving.
Donald Trump tried to call in to Fox News in the middle of the attack on the Capitol, but he was not put on air, according to court documents.
The House select committee that investigated the January 6 attack did not know that Trump had made this call, according to a source familiar with the panel’s work.
The panel sought to piece together a near minute-by-minute account of Trump’s movements, actions and phone calls on that day. His call to Fox shows some of the gaps in the record that still exist because of obstacles faced by the committee.
► Murdoch said he “suggested or urged” the firing of host Lou Dobbs because he “was an extremist,” but allowed him to continue hosting a program at the network until after the election. Dominion argues that’s because Dobbs was popular with Trump and his supporters and the network was fending off viewer defections to Newsmax.
“But Fox executives vetoed that decision,” Dominion’s filing continued. Why? Not because of a lack of newsworthiness. January 6 was an important event by any measure. President Trump not only was the sitting President, he was the key figure that day.”
The show on Fox Business, which was hosted by CNN’s Lou Dobbs, was scrapped after the January 6 insurrection.
“Some of our commentators were endorsing it,,” Murdoch said, according to the filing, when asked about the talk hosts’ on-air positions about the election. He said that he wished we were stronger in condemning it.
Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School, described Dominion’s evidence as a “very strong” filing that “clearly lays out the difference between what Fox was saying publicly and what top people at Fox were privately admitting.”
In her years of teaching and practicing law, she had never seen such incriminating evidence before a defamation trial.
The Fox News Network: Investigating Defamation and Election Libels in the Wake of the 2016 Presidential Election on Decay Rulings
Using text messages and emails sent by Fox employees and prominent hosts like Mr. Hannity and Tucker Carlson in the weeks after the election, Dominion has pieced together a dramatic account from inside the network, depicting a frantic scramble to woo back viewers after ratings collapsed.
Mr. Dinh said that the Fox executives had an obligation to stop hosts of shows from broadcasting lies.
Fox lawyers argued that the hosts were providing a forum for the architects of those legal challenges, and a reasonable viewer would have understood that.
A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. The daily digest will chronicle the evolving media landscape here.
► In the wake of the election, Murdoch wrote in an email to the New York Post’s Col Allan, describing election lies that Trump was pushing as “bulls**t and damaging.”
► Murdoch gave Jared Kushner “confidential information” about then-candidate Joe Biden’s ads “along with debate strategy” in 2020, the filing said, offering Trump’s son-in-law “a preview of Biden’s ads before they were public.” At most news organizations, this type of action would result in an investigation and disciplinary measures.
The documents show that the channel does not inform its audience but feeds them content that keeps them happy and watching.
The network faces two separate defamation lawsuits from voting technology companies that collectively seek $4.3 billion in damages. Fox Corporation, the right-wing news outlet’s owner, has an estimated $4 billion in cash on hand, according to its latest earnings statement.
“This is one of the most devastating depositions that I’ve ever seen,” CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen said Monday. If you go beyond reporting and the chairman admits there was an endorsement, then you will be found guilty under the malice standard.
There is evidence in the public sphere that shows Fox was aware of the truth and decided to go with an alternate narrative.
Murdoch acknowledged that several people promoted lies about the presidential contest being stolen.
A lack of action by the board could result in additional legal exposure to Fox, Sonnenfeld warned. He explained that while 39% of the company is underMurdoch control, any shareholder can file a lawsuit for bad management and inadequate conscious diligence.
The removal of high ranked personnel, like Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott, from their roles should be done immediately according to Sonnenfeld, who has advised hundreds of CEOs.
“The board has a duty to remove such officials for proven misconduct,” Sonnenfeld told CNN by email, explaining that peddling known election lies — as “acknowledged in the company’s own sworn testimony” — damaged the outlet’s corporate reputation.
He said that the report should be given to the shareholders by May 1. Sonnenfeld also said the directors and officers insurers “should be contacted to see” if board members “are still protected.”
Ryan’s actions weren’t enough according to Sonnenfeld. He pointed out that Ryan had certain responsibilities under corporate governance law in Delaware where Fox is incorporated and that his quiet dissent was ineffectual and immoral.
Nell Minow, vice chair at ValueEdge Advisors and expert on corporate governance, told CNN she agreed with everything that Sonnenfeld said. Minow said that she would tell board members to get in touch with their largest shareholders to discuss new independent directors.
When Fox News Losses Defamation Dominion Media: The Correspondence Between Fox News and Rutgers University Law Professor Ronald Chen
“How often do you get ‘smoking gun’ emails that show, first, that persons responsible for the editorial content knew that the accusation was false, and also convincing emails that show the reason Fox reported this was for its own mercenary interests?” says Rutgers University law professor Ronald Chen, an authority on Constitutional and media law.
“We err on the side of speech because the more and more speech you have, the better chance of having people actually getting the opportunity to point out what’s right and what’s wrong,” attorney Erin Murphy, one of the senior figures on Fox’s defense team, tells NPR in an interview. That’s the reason we don’t suppress the speech we don’t think is right.
Top executives, including Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, told one another they could not bluntly confront their viewers with the facts because that could alienate them further.
Even with that record, set out with voluminous documentation, some media lawyers say Fox’s attorneys may be right in predicting that a loss would constrict the media’s freedoms.
Kirtley, a former executive director of the Reporters, thinks that it is a slippery slope to say that Fox is a bunch of liars and that their wild speculations should not be reported.
When news outlets do lose defamation cases, they often result in retractions or apologies and settlements while they’re still on appeal. The outcomes of the two most prominent defamation cases in the past year were different.
Brennan believes Americans have the right to get things wrong in talking about politicians in order to ensure a free and robust debate.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/03/06/1161221798/if-fox-news-loses-defamation-dominion-media
The Dominion Case: Investigating the Case against Roger Ailes’s Sexual Affair with the Fox News Channel and the State of the Art
Two current Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, have said they will be willing to make it easier to prevail in defamation suits. Elena Kagan believed that the protections for the press might be too strong as a member of the court.
Murphy thinks the idea of actual malice is required for specific people to be involved with the broadcasts. Murdoch said under oath that some of his star hosts endorsed the election fraud claims, but this did not carry any legal weight.
“Anybody would have to acknowledge that what the president and his lawyers were doing was newsworthy in and of itself, regardless of whether the allegations were ultimately going to be anything they could prove,” Murphy says. She invoked what journalists consider the safe ground of “neutral reporting” – just telling their audiences what others are saying.
Rolling Stone magazine settled separate cases filed by the dean of the University of Virginia and a campus group after standards for reporting on sex assaults in campus housing collapsed.
A year ago, The New York Times prevailed against former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin after an editorial wrongly linked her advertisements from her political action committee to a mass shooting months later.
The Dominion case is such a strange case that it provides an exception to the general rule. “Let us hope we don’t see such a bizarre case as this one again.”
Among those who say they aren’t shocked: former journalists at Fox News, who suggest that maybe the public now better understands what they saw from the inside.
“There is no one thing I didn’t expect,” says former Fox commentator and guest host Julie Roginsky. “I have read every single thing in those files.”
He left Fox about seven months into the Trump administration. He said the right wing hosts drowned out straight journalism at the channel.
“There was a time when the journalists had some control,” Cameron says now. “That has all eroded.” It really doesn’t matter when that started. What it ended up with, is the organization has a serious legal problem. “
The departure of Roger Ailes from Fox News in the summer of 2016 was seen by a number of them as a kind of revenge against him.
To be clear on Roginsky’s feelings about Ailes, she was one of many women at Fox News who alleged he sexually harassed her. She sued Fox and Ailes and received an undisclosed settlement. Fox News says CEO Suzanne Scott has completely reshaped the network’s culture.
Tucker Carlson and the Fox News Defamation: A Pseudoscalar ‘Two-Dimensional Democracy’
Those who stayed accepted the idea that they would be led by the mob and the mob would be led by Donald Trump.
Chris was the most direct person in the situation. He was a member of the Decision Desk team in 2020 which called Arizona for Biden on election night. Fox did so ahead of anyone else, angering millions of Trump’s supporters.
It was very sad for an organization that used to be called ‘the most powerful name in news’ that it was afraid and anxious. Stirewalt said it. The willingness of people to sacrifice short-term cost for long-term good, and if I could be especially corny, the Republic, is cited by him.
Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace and several other commentators left in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Tucker Carlson is a Fox star who has hosted shows that have promoted conspiracy theories about the siege of the US Capitol.
Fox News sought a restraining order against one of its own senior producers on Monday to prevent her from publicly disclosing information linked to the $1.6 billion defamation claim it is fighting over falsehoods it broadcast after the 2020 presidential election.
Abby Grossberg, the senior producer in charge of booking guests for star Tucker Carlson, told Fox last month she intended to sue the network for discrimination and retaliation, according to Fox’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that Fox News attorneys manipulated Ms. Grossberg to give incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which gave Fox News an advantage.
The memo Powell delivered detailed allegations of fraud without providing evidence. It was written by a woman named Marlene Bourne, who admitted her claims were “pretty wackadoodle.”
The Fox News Producer-Legalsuit: A Case Study of a Crazy B**ch/A Model Whose Staff is a Female Host?
The lawsuits from Grossberg, who has since been placed on administrative leave by Fox, were filed in Delaware Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
In a phone interview Monday night, Grossberg and her attorney disagreed with Fox News assertion of only complaints after a critical performance review.
Fox doesn’t care, Grossberg said. “It summarizes everything perfectly. They don’t care about their employees … and they don’t care about their viewers.”
Grossberg said Fox News executives referred to her as a woman and a crazy b**ch, because they wanted to hire a male host for the show.
When she began work on Carlson’s show, Grossberg said the environment was horrific. On her first day, she said she learned the show’s workspace was decorated with large photos of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage.”
The lawsuit continued to describe a culture at Carlson’s program in which women were subjected to crude terms and in which jokes about Jewish people were made out in the open. Grossberg named Carlson and members of his staff in the lawsuit filed in New York.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/media/fox-news-producer-lawsuit/index.html
Dominion: Getting Your Point Out of My Co-Celebration at the Center for Media Arts and Culture (An interview with Grossberg)
“I’ve covered many stories while I have been there,” Grossberg told CNN. “Dominion is just a small portion. My last day of work last week was the first time I saw it since the beginning.
“It’s constant,” she added. Ratings are important to the shows, network, and hosts. It’s a business that drives coverage.
