New Emails Show Murdoch Feared Fox Being Blamed By Top Republicans For Jan. 6: ‘Maybe Sean and Laura Went Too Far’
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Another dump of emails, text messages, and other documents from Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion dollar defamation lawsuit against Fox News was made public on Monday, adding additional insight into what top Fox executives, hosts, and producers really thought surrounding the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Dominion’s legal filing alleges Fox News acted with a “recklessly disregarded the truth” in covering and promoting 2020 election conspiracy theories from then President Donald Trump and his allies, arguing “the lies were good for Fox’s business.” Fox News, meanwhile, maintains its coverage is protected by the First Amendment and was newsworthy given the president’s allegations and questions about election integrity.
The latest document dump includes a Jan. 21, 2021 email from Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott.
“Big morning with McConnell meeting with Graham and other anti-impeachers,” Murdoch wrote, adding:
Still getting mud thrown at us! Is it “unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th an important chance to have the result overturned”?
Maybe Sean and Laura went too far.
All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump but what did he tell his viewers?
The email appears to show Murdoch feared that coverage by hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham would link the network to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which was fueled by election conspiracy theories claiming Trump was still the legitimate president.
https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1633239150353866752
Another email from Murdoch to Scott, dated Nov. 6, shows that Murdoch was aware in the days immediately following the election that Trump had little legitimate chance to remain president.
“Trump still talking legal actions but in calmer voice,” Murdoch wrote, adding:
Everything seems to be moving to Biden and if Trump becomes a sore loser
we should watch Sean especially and others don’t sound the same.
Not there yet, but a danger.
Turkey on now with Fox and Friends sounds pretty sensible. If Biden holds Az, Nevada, Georgia and Pa very hard to credibly cry foul everywhere.
Love to hear likely House numbers.
Pelosi majority halved?
Finally got Fox on here and nice to see plenty of breaks! Yesterday CNN had none. But so biased as to be unwatchable!
The email appears to show Murdoch worrying how Hannity may guide the audience to interpret the election results, while praising legal analyst Jonathan Turley for offering a more sober analysis, which he called “pretty sensible.”
Fox News released the following statement regarding court documents being made public Monday:
Thanks to today’s filings, Dominion has been caught red handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press. We already know they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to twist and even misattribute quotes to the highest levels of our company is truly beyond the pale.
