Source: Politics<\/p>\n
The most powerful figures at Fox News privately raised grave doubts about the election conspiracy theories they repeatedly amplified in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, according to a Thursday court filing in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit over the network’s coverage.<\/p>\n
Internal communications revealed by Dominion Voting Systems paint a stark and damning picture \u2014 a split-screen between the false and conspiratorial claims beamed to Fox viewers about rigged Dominion voting machines, and the private, candid opinions of the network\u2019s hosts and executives, who repeatedly admitted to each other that the claims were utter, unsourced garbage.<\/p>\n
“From the top down, Fox knew,” the company argues.<\/p>\n
Dominion\u2019s nearly-200-page filing not only lays out a tale of rank hypocrisy, but it weaves a broader narrative about what drove the campaign of disinformation \u2014 documenting the panic inside the network\u2019s ranks after conservative discontent over its early (and accurate) call of Arizona for Joe Biden translated into a viewership boom for its less scrupulous competitor, Newsmax, as an aggrieved Donald Trump lashed out at Fox.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could easily destroy us if we play it wrong,\u201d primetime host Tucker Carlson texted his producer just two days after the election \u2014 one of dozens of frank admissions aired by Dominion.<\/p>\n
And so fears of lost viewers and lost profits led Fox\u2019s most powerful figures to indulge baseless claims of conspiracy and fraud and, in some cases, move to sideline news reporters who took basic steps to fact-check claims made by the likes of pro-Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani on the network\u2019s airwaves.<\/p>\n
In a series of text messages, Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham lambasted Powell and Giuliani for peddling conspiratorial goods without evidence. \u201cSidney Powell is lying. Fucking bitch,\u201d Carlson wrote to Ingraham on Nov. 18. \u201cSidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,\u201d Ingraham responded.<\/p>\n
Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch called the idea that the election was stolen \u201creally crazy stuff.\u201d Shortly after the election, his top execs circulated a New York Post piece urging Trump to \u201cstop the \u2019stolen election\u2019 rhetoric\u201d and \u201cget Rudy Giuliani off TV.\u201d They also openly fretted about whether Hannity, Ingraham and Carlson would indulge the conspiracy theories on their shows.<\/p>\n
Emails and texts in the filing suggest that Fox\u2019s top executives and stars were less worried about factual accuracy than about ratings crashing after viewers who bought into Trump\u2019s election lies began to seek out different channels that would support their biases. <\/p>\n
While one Fox exec called Newsmax\u2019s ratings surge \u201ctroubling\u201d and said the channel trafficked in an \u201calternative universe,\u201d they also argued that the trend \u201ccan\u2019t be ignored.\u201d Another said the message had been sent out internally that the network was now on \u201cwar footing.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the filing, Fox \u2014 still in hot water with Trump supporters for calling Arizona for Biden \u2014 did a quick about-face to protect its brand, leaving journalists at the network who reported the truth about the election in the crosshairs:<\/p>\n
On Nov. 9, 2020, host Neil Cavuto cut away from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as she made unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election. \u201cUnless she has more details to back that up, I can\u2019t in good countenance continue to show you this,\u201d Cavuto said on the air. For this, Fox Corp. Senior VP (and former Trump White House press aide) Raj Shah labeled Cavuto a \u201cbrand threat\u201d in a message to top corporate brass.<\/p>\n
Hannity and Carlson tried to get Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich fired for fact-checking a Trump tweet about Dominion and noting that there was no evidence of votes being destroyed. \u201cPlease get her fired. Seriously\u2026 What the fuck?\u201d Carlson texted Ingraham and Hannity on Nov. 12, 2020. \u201cIt\u2019s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.\u201d Hannity exploded on top execs, including one who panicked and wrote that Heinrich \u201chas serious nerve doing this and if this gets picked up, viewers are going to be further disgusted\u201d with Fox. (CNN\u2019s Oliver Darcy reported last night<\/a> that Heinrich was \u201cblindsided\u201d by this disclosure.)<\/p>\n On Nov. 19, 2020, after Fox broadcasted the now-infamous Giuliani and Powell press conference<\/a> about Dominion, then-White House correspondent Kristen Fisher got in trouble for fact-checking their bogus claims. Per the filing, \u201cFisher received a call from her boss, Bryan Boughton, immediately after in which he emphasized that higher-ups at Fox News were also unhappy with it, and that Fisher needed to do a better job of, this is a quote, respecting our audience.\u201d <\/p>\n In one of the most bizarre bits, the filing reveals that Powell\u2019s Dominion voting conspiracy came in part from an email Powell received from a tipster who claimed that former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was secretly murdered while on a human-hunting expedition \u2014 and who claimed to be \u201cinternally decapitated\u201d (\u201cThe Wind tells me I\u2019m a ghost, but I don\u2019t believe it,\u201d the tipster wrote in the email).
Fox host Maria Bartiromo, who agreed to have Powell on her show after reading this email, never told viewers about the source of Powell\u2019s claim. As Fox\u2019s then-managing editor in Washington Bill Sammon said of the network\u2019s coverage at the time: \u201cIt\u2019s remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things.\u201d<\/p>\n