Former Fox News Reporter Sues Network, Alleges He Was Reprimanded for Fact-Checking Election Lies
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File
A former Capitol Hill reporter for Fox News filed suit against the network for allegedly firing him in retaliation for speaking out against its “false” coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a new report.
Jason Donner, a 12-year veteran at Fox News, filed his lawsuit Monday in D.C. Superior Court. He accused Fox News of “violating the D.C. Human Rights Act, including three counts of discrimination, retaliation and wrongful termination,” according to The Daily Beast’s Justin Baragona.
Donner claimed the trouble began when he was reporting from inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, and told the Fox News control room to stop describing the rioters as “peaceful.”
According to the lawsuit, Donner told the Fox News control room, “I’m your Capitol Hill Producer inside the Capitol where tear gas is going off on the second floor in the Ohio clock corridor, rioters are storming the building, reports of shots fired outside the House Chamber. I don’t want to hear any of this fucking shit on our air ever again because you’re gonna get us all killed.”
The suit alleges Fox News began to retaliate against Donner the following spring:
After meeting with human resources in August 2022 to further complain about [Tucker] Carlson’s false reporting and the “toxic environment it breeds at Fox News,” which he says was the second time he’d complained about Carlson’s Jan. 6 coverage, Donner says he was eventually fired after calling in sick the following month.
“This was a pretextual firing based on Donner’s political views and affiliation, his refusal to report false information regarding the 2020 election and January 6th, and for his engaging in protected activity,” the complaint says. Ultimately, Fox News wanted to purge the news division of any staff that would not get in line with the directive to only report information that appeased the Trump supporters and former President Trump.”
Donner also claimed he was reprimanded for a Nov. 2020 tweet “fact-checking the infamous Rudy Giuliani press conference alleging rampant voting machine fraud.”
Fox News filed a notice Monday, requesting that the case be moved to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, according to Baragona.
Fox News famously settled a $787.5 million suit with Dominion Voting Systems over false election claims that Carlson claimed led to his firing. The network also settled with former Carlson producer Abby Grossberg for $12 million in her suit alleging a hostile workplace. Fox News will soon face off with Smartmatic, which filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit over election lies.
The network did not respond to requests for comment.
Read The Daily Beast story here.
