Murdoch Said Hannity Was ‘Privately Disgusted’ By Trump But ‘Scared to Lose Viewers,’ According to New Court Filing
Dominion Voting Systems’ latest bombshell court filing was made public Monday, ahead of the April trial for the company’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
In one stunning revelation, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corporation, replied in an email to former House Speaker and Fox Corp. board member Paul Ryan that veteran host Sean Hannity “has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks.” The exchange regarded Trump’s spreading of election lies following his November 2020 defeat to Joe Biden.
The voting technology company is suing Fox News, alleging the network knowingly aired election lies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election — falsely implicating Dominion.
“Executives at all levels of Fox — both (Fox News Network) and (Fox Corporation) — knowingly opened Fox’s airwaves to false conspiracy theories about Dominion,” Dominion wrote in the unsealed filing Monday.
The filing details internal discussions regarding election conspiracy theories being discussed at the highest level of the network:
On January 12, Ryan discussed with Rupert and Lachlan an article called “The Alternate Reality Machine” about how “the right-wing media ecosystem created an alternative reality for those who had come to rely on its outlets for news” and were the “enablers” of January 6. Ex.620, Ryan 331:18-334:4; Ex.666. Ryan believed that “some high percentage of Americans” thought the election was stolen “because they got a diet of information telling them the election was stolen from what they believe were credible sources.” Ex.620, Ryan 334:6-15.
“Rupert responded to Ryan’s email: ‘Thanks Paul. Wake-up call for Hannity, who has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, but was scared to lose viewers,’” the filing added.
“Ryan replied: ‘[T]he sooner we can put down the echoes of falsehoods from our side, the faster we can get onto principled loyal opposition. I truly hope our contributors, along with Tucker, Laura, and Sean get that and execute,’” the document added.
“Rupert replied back: “Just talked at length with Suzanne Scott. Everything changed last Wednesday [January 6]. She thinks everyone is now disgusted and previous supporters broken hearted,’” the filing concluded.
The filing also noted that Murdoch and Scott, the CEO of Fox News, discussed the day before the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, having Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham issuing a joint statement declaring Biden had won and putting an end to the election conspiracy theories, which fueled the attack:
On January 5, Rupert and Scott discussed whether Hannity, Carlson, and Ingraham should say some version of “The election is over and Joe Biden won.” Ex.277. He hoped those words “would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election stolen.” Id; Ex.600, R.Murdoch 258:5-14. Scott told Rupert that “privately they are all there” but “we need to be careful about using the shows and pissing off the viewers.” Ex.277. So nobody made a statement. The next day was January 6
Fox News released a statement regarding the latest Dominion document dump, which is the second major unsealing of evidence in recent weeks:
Dominion’s lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny, as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims. 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.
You can read the entire brief here.
