Rupert Murdoch criticized Fox host Sean Hannity: Court filing

Further revelations from Fox Corporation Rupert Murdoch’s testimony, and evidence gathered from Fox executives and TV hosts in the months following the 2020 election, was revealed Tuesday as part of the Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit. became.

Hundreds of pages of evidence collected from both sides, including full excerpts of testimony from depositions, text messages, and emails, were released Tuesday to the public on the 2020 election.

“Maybe Sean [Hannity] and Laura [Ingraham] gone too far. It’s so nice of Sean to tell you that he’s desperate about Trump, but what did he tell viewers? An email to Scott apparently referred to Fox News hosts Sean. Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

A Delaware judge ordered the documents to be opened. While some of the depositions and evidence have been released in recent weeks, Tuesday’s filing is the most extensive disclosure of private communications between Fox Corp. and Fox News.

Dominion alleges in the lawsuit that Fox and its Ringwing cable TV channel and talent have falsely claimed that their voting machines rigged the 2020 election results.

Fox News on Tuesday said the filed documents “Dominion red-handedly used more distortions and misinformation in its PR campaign to defame Fox News and trample free speech and press freedom.” We already know they will say anything and do anything… To try to win this case and try to twist or mislead the highest level of our company is really outrageous. It’s not.”

The company points to testimony that Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch “was up in the middle of the night” regarding ratings and competition after the 2020 election. Lachlan Murdoch said ratings in general were what kept him up at night. rice field.

According to court documents, Lachlan-Murdoch said, “You get gray hair when you’re awake. Sports ratings, news ratings, or entertainment ratings are probably the worst.”

A Dominion spokesperson said Thursday, “Emails, texts and deposition testimony speak for themselves. We welcome all scrutiny of the evidence because it all leads to the same place. Fox deliberately spread lies and caused great damage to American companies.”

Trump has repeatedly spread false claims that the 2020 election between him and current President Joe Biden was rigged. Trump was defeated by Joe Biden in an attempt to “discover” that he was under criminal investigation.

In an exchange between host Maria Bartiromo and former Trump chief adviser Steve Bannon, Bartiromo said he was “very depressed.”

“I would love to see a massive fraud exposed. Will he be able to turn this around? [president] choose with [all]Not in the script or banner on air. Until this goes through court,” Bartiromo said in an exchange of text messages, while Bannon said, “The 71 million voters will never accept Biden.

Fox News has consistently denied making any willfully false claims about the election. Dominion claims to be “choosing the good” quotes from documents gleaned from his depositions and discoveries.

Fox Corp. also said in court documents that its findings over the past year “showed that the media company played no role in the preparation and publication of the challenged statements.” .

Also on Tuesday, lawyers for Dominion and Fox met in front of a Delaware judge to discuss next steps toward a trial scheduled to begin in mid-April. Fox will meet again in a Delaware court on March 21 for a motion for summary judgment.

The evidence, which was filed in a Delaware court on Tuesday, comes after weeks of court filings that revealed some of the evidence gathered. Murdoch depositother Top Fox brass, Not only top talent.

In filing some of which were released last weekMurdoch even admitted that some of Fox’s top TV anchors parroted false claims in the months after the 2020 presidential election, and some even backed the claims.

“Some of our commentators supported it,” Murdoch said in his response during the deposition.

Court documents also show that Murdoch and his son, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, were close friends with Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott regarding network coverage.Evidence such as testimonials and text messages from individuals such as Tucker Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham expressed distrust of the allegations It’s on air.

This incident is being closely monitored by the First Amendment Watchdog. Defamation lawsuits typically focus on one falsehood, but in this case, Dominion is making false allegations even after the Fox cable channel and its hosts have been proven false. I am giving you a long list. Media companies are often broadly protected by the First Amendment.

The lawsuit also provided a window into what’s going on behind the scenes at Fox News and other events related to the 2020 election fraud allegations raised on Fox’s network.

For example, court filings show that: Fox Corp. executives exercised veto power Trump’s attempt to appear on the network’s broadcast after a violent mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on the night of January 6, 2021 to prevent Congress from confirming Biden’s victory. .

That night, Fox’s top host, Tucker Carlson, texted the producers, calling Trump a “diabolical force.”

Court documents also show that Murdoch said it was “wrong” for Carlson to host MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Trump’s ally who spread conspiracy theories It is related to the elections which will take place a few weeks after January 6th.

Carlson, along with top anchors such as Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, expressed disbelief in statements made by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell, who aggressively promoted allegations of election fraud.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said: Fox News host Tucker Carlson blown up For airing footage of Jan. 6 on Monday in a manner described as a peaceful visit to the U.S. Capitol. Schumer also criticized House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, CA) for giving Carlson and Fox his news exclusive access to 44,000 hours of Capitol security footage.

Meanwhile, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y. sent a letter last week It called on Murdoch and Fox News leaders to “stop spreading false election narratives and acknowledge on air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.” , was published days after the incident was further revealed.