Rupert Murdoch lashes out at Donald Trump and Fox commentators
Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News’ popular commentators “supported” Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, though Murdoch said he did, according to a defamation lawsuit immediately doubted the conspiracy theory.
“Some of our commenters have supported this,” Murdoch said when questioned under oath in a $1.6 billion lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems Inc. that included extracts from the filing in a court filing filed Monday.
“About approving a stolen election?” asked a lawyer.
“Yes,” said Murdoch. “You have agreed.”
Fox News has been accused of helping to spread false claims that the voting machine maker removed millions of electronic ballots from Trump as part of a major conspiracy involving corrupt Democrats and foreign hackers – a claim that is still dated touted by former Presidents and many of his allies.
Murdoch testified that he immediately had serious doubts about Trump’s conspiracy theory.
“It’s fair to say that you seriously doubted any allegation of massive voter fraud?” Murdoch was asked by a Dominion attorney.
“Oh yes,” said Murdoch.
“And you seriously doubted it from the start?” He was asked.
“Yes,” Murdoch replied. “I mean, we thought everything was on the up. I think that was shown when we announced Arizona.” He was referring to when Fox declared Joe Biden the state’s winner on election night.
Murdoch’s testimony was disclosed in part by Denver-based Dominion in response to a Fox inquiry on his behalf without holding a trial currently scheduled for April in Delaware state court. Dominion has also asked the judge to rule in its favor without a trial.
The voting machine company argues that the statements by Murdoch and others support their claim that Fox broadcast the defamatory claims while “knowing the truth or recklessly ignoring it.” A previous filing by Dominion cited text messages and emails to show that a crowd of on-air talent and executives knew the theory was wrong.
Despite this, Fox News reported on the conspiracy theory for weeks after the election, repeatedly hosting its biggest supporters, former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell and longtime Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, among others.
“Extreme” view
On Monday, Fox criticized Dominion’s filing as trying to “make headlines” instead of making valid legal arguments.
“Her motion for summary judgment took an extreme, unsupported view of the defamation law, which would bar journalists from basic reporting, and her efforts to publicly defame FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States recognized for what they are: a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” Fox said.
Fox also argues that the text messages and emails cited in Dominion’s earlier filing do not support the case, as the seemingly scathing comments are not from someone whose statements were allegedly defamatory.
Dominion said the case should go ahead. “Fox asks the court to rule that it bears no legal responsibility for spreading even the most horrific allegations it knows to be false, so long as they are ‘newsworthy,'” the polling machine maker said.
Viewing Biden ads
In its filing Monday, Dominion said Murdoch was sympathetic to Trump’s campaign, going so far as to allow Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner access to “Fox confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with the debate strategy.”
Still, Murdoch declined to help Trump after Fox declared Biden was the winner in Arizona, Dominion said.
“My friend Jared Kushner called me and said, ‘This is awful,’ and I could hear Trump’s voice screaming in the background,” Murdoch said, according to the filing. “And I said, ‘Well, the numbers are the numbers.'”
When Fox called the election for Biden on November 7, 2020, Rupert Murdoch “complained” to his son, Fox Corp. co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch, that according to Dominion’s file, things could have been handled differently.
“We should and could have gone first, but at least coming second saves us a Trump explosion!” the elder Murdoch said, according to the filing.
Murdoch said in an email to the New York Post’s Col Allan days after the election that Giuliani had a “terrible influence on Donald” and that half of what Trump said was “bullsh*t and harmful.”
“Bizarre Phase”
Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives who joined Fox’s board in 2019, texted Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch on Dec. 6, 2020, about a month after the election, denouncing Trump’s behavior.
“We’re entering a really bizarre phase of this where [Trump] actually convinced himself of this farce and will do more bizarre things to delegitimize the election,” Ryan said, according to Dominion’s filing.
On December 7, after receiving Ryan’s text, Rupert wrote to Lachlan: “Call me later about Trump and Paul. Trump on Saturday sounded really crazy.”
In January 2021, after Fox News was accused of helping start the Capitol riot, Rupert Murdoch, responding to internal concerns about the network’s role, told a Fox executive, “Fox News is very busy turning … We.” want to make Trump a non-person.”
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