Newly released court documents in Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News reveal how RINOs at the new org sought to betray Trump after the 2020 election. Lachlan Murdoch warned Sean Hannity that Trump could not return to Fox if he attacked the network.
Firing back, Hannity claimed, “Trump people hate Fox.” Rupert Murdoch expressed concern over audience losses and suggested removing Lou Dobbs. Depositions show that Rupert took no steps to stop hosts from endorsing stolen-election claims, believed in a “pivot” away from Trump support, and linked the claims to January 6.
In any case, in a newly revealed text to Sean Hannity on October 1, 2020, Lachlan Murdoch revealed that the president would be kept off the air at FNC if he said negative things about the network, telling Hannity, “Sean, sorry, but the president is not coming back on air if he uses it to attack us. It is the same rule we have with the other side. This is a golden rule.”
Similarly, in an email to a producer after the election, Sean Hannity alleged, “Trump people hate Fox. Hate hate hate.” In an email to Lachlan, Rupert Murdoch said, “Getting killed in audience numbers. All day long. We have to keep our nerve but worth a discussion. Won’t hurt subscriber revenue, but will soon cut into [advertisements].” Responding, she said, “Agree re FNC. Keeping me awake at night.”
“Still getting criticism for [Fox News Channel]. Saying leading voices encouraged stolen election bullshit and pushed Jan 6 rally.” (In same thread on Lou Dobbs): “Just take him off the air and negotiate later,” Rupert Murdoch sent later on January 21, 2021
Later in the deposition, when asked if he took steps to ensure hosts did not endorse stolen election claims, Rupert Murdoch declared, “No. No.” and added, “I was very happy [with] the way Fox News was handling it.”
He also claimed that Fox decided to “pivot” after the election by “moving away from our support of Trump.” But “Our very large audience tended to be Trump supporters. We didn’t want to upset them totally. That, we did before. They’d been attacking us.”
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In the same legal document, he argued that Trump’s claims contributed to January 6, but denied it was a “riot” and said it was “intended to be just a rally outside the Capitol.” Similarly, Lachlan Murdoch sought to distance herself from the pressure. She said that she didn’t think Fox News did anything to “endorse” fraud claims. “I can’t imagine a more newsworthy story than the sitting president of the United States calling into question the election results,” she quipped.
Reacting to the situation, a Fox News spokesperson declared, “The evidence shows that Smartmatic’s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump’s lawyers on Fox News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech.” However, the matter seems to have been a point of contention that led to the network disliking the president.
Featured image credit: Hudson Institute, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons