Fox News Told Viewers Election Was Stolen, Didn’t Believe It Themselves
Discovery process in major lawsuit exposes scandal of the real source of fake news
Fox Corp.'s headquarters on New York's Sixth Avenue displays the network's notables (l. to r.) Dana Perino, Bret Baier (obscured by traffic light), Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity.
Filings in a Delaware court by Dominion Voting Systems at the end of February laid bare that the full spectrum of principals at Fox News promoted the lie that the 2020 election was stolen while none of them believed it.
Internal communications and depositions by Fox personnel "prove the network knowingly spread falsehoods about Trump's loss in the 2020 U.S. presidential election in order to bolster its ratings", the filings report. The network's on-air personalities amplified false claims that Dominion's machines were rigged to hand the election to Joe Biden. “From the top down, Fox knew ‘the dominion stuff’ was ‘total bs’", quotes one of the filings from “a mountain of direct evidence.”
The motive “is not red or blue,” Rupert Murdoch said. “It is green.” By promulgating Donald Trump's lies about a fraudulent election because it was good for profit, the Australia born and raised media tycoon has shown no qualms about doing the greatest damage to America's democracy since Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s and before that Charles "Father" Coughlin in the 1930s. Millions have been indoctrinated by the lie perpetuated night and day on Fox that has created a ruinous schism among Americans with little sign of annulment.
On election night when News anchor Bret Baier reported on air that "The Fox News Decision Desk is calling Arizona for Joe Biden", the reaction was thunderous. Fox had been preparing its viewers for a Trump win, valid or not. Admitting a Biden win was not supposed to happen. If they told their audience the truth about the election, it could destroy their business model, they believed. Tucker Carlson, the host in the 8:00 pm slot who draws the most viewers, texted his producer Alex Pfeiffer,
“We worked really hard to build what we have. Those f**kers are destroying our credibility. It enrages me.”
There was fear of Trump's reaction. Carlson added that the then-president was good at “destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong. He called Trump….
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