" />

The Moderate Voice

An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right


You are here: Home / Featured / FOX NEWS BOMBSHELL: MURDOCH ADMITS FOX NEWS HOSTS ENDORSED THE BIG LIE

FOX NEWS BOMBSHELL: MURDOCH ADMITS FOX NEWS HOSTS ENDORSED THE BIG LIE

by Leave a Comment

Donald Trump’s contention that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from him has become known as The Big Lie. In stunning excerpts from Dominion Voting systems $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News, conservative media bigwig Rupert Murdoch admitted under oath that his hosts endorsed The Big Lie even though Murdoch himself never believed it.

The bottom line? Fox’s position was The Big Bottom Lie: the need to make big bucks by giving viewers something that fit into their ongoing narrative so they wouldn’t switch to even more rightwing media outlets.

Cpurt document also showed that: er

  • Top rated Fox News host Sean Hannity had been disgusted by Trump for weeks. But he didn’t want to lose viewers so he kept his disgust private.
  • Murdoch leaked private information about Joe Biden campaign ads to Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner.

    • This is a monster–and unprecedented story– about The Big Lie and an apparent Big Liar corporation. A news corporation that not only ran info they knew was false but also provided campaign intelligence to combat the presidential candidate of a party not supported by the highly-partisan news corporation.

    But in era where truth is seemingly, oh, so 20th century, will it matter?

    Perhaps not in the political realm, but a verdict in favor of Dominion will be catastrophic for Fox and what remains of its (Big Lie) “Fair and Balanced” slogan.

    The New York Times:

    Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the conservative media empire that owns Fox News, acknowledged in a deposition that several hosts for his networks promoted the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald J. Trump, and that he could have stopped them but didn’t, court documents released on Monday showed.

    “They endorsed,” Mr. Murdoch said under oath in response to direct questions about the Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, according to a legal filing by Dominion Voting Systems. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” he added, while also disclosing that he was always dubious of Mr. Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

    Asked whether he doubted Mr. Trump, Mr. Murdoch responded: “Yes. I mean, we thought everything was on the up-and-up.” At the same time, he rejected the accusation that Fox News as a whole had endorsed the stolen election narrative. “Not Fox,” he said. “No. Not Fox.”

    Mr. Murdoch’s remarks, which he made last month as part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, added to the evidence that Dominion has accumulated as it tries to prove its central allegation: The people running the country’s most popular news network knew Mr. Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election were false but broadcast them anyway in a reckless pursuit of ratings and profit.

    Proof to that effect would help Dominion clear the high legal bar set by the Supreme Court for defamation cases. To prevail, Dominion must show not only that Fox broadcast false information, but that it did so knowingly. A judge in Delaware state court has scheduled a monthlong trial beginning in April.

    The Daily Beast:

    Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch admitted in a deposition that while he had the opportunity to stop former President Donald Trump’s legal team from peddling election fraud lies on his network, he decided not to take it.

    “I could have. But I didn’t,” Murdoch told lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems when asked if he could have ordered Fox News to keep Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell off the air following the 2020 election.

    On top of that, Murdoch also conceded that several of his network’s stars helped shape a false on-air narrative about the election being “stolen” from Trump due to corrupt voting machines. “They endorsed,” the Fox chairman declared under oath in a legal filing unsealed on Monday. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight.”

    This latest filing by Dominion, which is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion, comes on the heels of the voting software firm releasing an explosive batch of emails and text messages earlier this month from Fox News hosts, producers and executives. Both sets of documents portray the network’s head honchos and top stars blasting Team Trump’s “insane” voter fraud claims behind the scenes while simultaneously broadcasting them to millions of viewers.

    Dominion is arguing that the damning internal communications between Fox employees and management prove that the network knowingly spread lies following Trump’s loss as a way to bolster its ratings.

    Messages reveal that Fox executives and personnel were concerned about disgruntled MAGA viewers ditching them for alternatives such as Newsmax after the network called Arizona for Joe Biden, sparking outrage from Trump and his supporters. Shortly after the early Arizona call, many of the network’s hosts and commentators began amplifying outlandish theories that Dominion’s machines and software were part of a complex voter fraud conspiracy involving, among other, deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

    In his deposition with Dominion’s attorneys last month, Murdoch was forced to conceded that even though Fox has argued that its hosts reported “neutrally” on Trump’s election fraud claims, many of them actually did endorse the ex-president “solen election” lies.

    The Wrap:

    Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that top Fox News hosts “endorsed” on-air what they knew to be a false narrative – that the 2020 election was stolen – according to his testimony from a deposition revealed Monday.

    Murdoch gave the sworn statement last month in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox. Parts of his deposition were included in a plaintiffs’ Monday filing in Delaware Superior Court.

    Murdoch’s testimony essentially corroborates what Dominion asserted in a detailed filing earlier this month: That top hosts, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo were privately horrified that their network was pushing Donald Trump’s “stolen election” narrative – but went on-air with it anyway.

    “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” Murdoch said, according to the filing.

    Fox remained steadfast in denying it had defamed Dominion in a Monday statement: “Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”