Kellyanne Conway Boldly Tells Fox Viewers the Mainstream Media Lies Amid Revelations Her Network Knowingly Pushed False Election Claims
Fox News host Sean Hannity offered up a fairly atypical segment on his show Wednesday night, featuring a broad critique of the mainstream media. Unlike almost every other Hannity segment, this one did not seem explicitly tied to any current news event.
Over the last two weeks, several bombshell revelations have come to light in the ongoing defamation suit against the network by Dominion Voting Systems, which is seeking $1.6 billion in damages.
Texts, emails, and deposition testimony show some Fox News hosts and other employees knew Donald Trump’s claims of fraud in the 2020 election were false. Nonetheless, the network promoted those falsehoods about the contest, including some claims about Dominion, which Trump’s team claimed rigged the election.
“They lie all the time,” Hannity said of the mainstream media to his studio audience. “And what bothers me is they get away with it and they just move on to the next set of lies.”
“They do, but it’s starting to catch up with him,” Kellyanne Conway, a Fox News contributor and ex-Trump adviser responded. “But let’s back it up. Their job is to get the story, but with Donald Trump, their mission was to get the president.”
Conway then issued a “challenge” for Hannity’s viewers:
I want to challenge people watching tonight who don’t wear red hats, don’t consider themselves MAGA, don’t consider themselves very strong political people. I want to ask yourself how many times you’ve been lied to, not just by this government, but how many times have you been lied to by the people whose job it is to tell you the truth in the media all in the service of getting the president?
In December, it was revealed Hannity testified under oath that he didn’t buy Trump’s claims about voter fraud.
“I did not believe it for one second,” he said in a deposition.
Last month, a text chain featuring Hannity and fellow Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham showed them grappling with Trump’s election claims versus the reality of the situation.
According to a filing by Dominion, Carlson seemed especially concerned about the company’s stock price and sought the termination of Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich:
In their group text thread, Carlson pointed Hannity to a tweet by Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich. Heinrich was “fact checking” a tweet by Trump that mentioned Dominion and specifically mentioned Hannity’s and Dobbs’ broadcasts that evening discussing Dominion. Heinrich correctly fact-checked the tweet, pointing out that “top election infrastructure officials” said that “‘There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.’”
Carlson told Hannity: “Please get her fired. Seriously… What the fuck? I’m actually shocked. It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company The stock price is down. Not a joke.” Tucker added, I just went crazy on Meade over it. Hannity said he had “already sent to Suzanne with a really?” He then added: “I’m 3 strikes. Wallace shit debate[.] Election night a disaster[.] Now this BS? Nope. Not gonna fly. Did I mention Cavuto?”
Fox News has denied wrongdoing.
“Dominion has mischaracterized the record, cherry-picked quotes stripped of key context,” the network said in a statement.
The network has barred its on-air hosts from discussing the matter, according to Fox News media reporter Howard Kurtz.
“The company has decided that as part of the organization being sued, I can’t talk about it or write about it, at least for now,” Kurtz said on Sunday. “I strongly disagree with that decision. But as an employee, I have to abide by it.”
About his network pushing false 2020 election claims, Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch testified, “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight.”
Watch above via Fox News.
