Rupert Murdoch testified Fox News ‘endorsed’ Donald Trump’s 2020 election lie
- Murdoch testified that Fox ‘endorsed’ Trump’s false claim the 2020 presidential election was rigged, even though Murdoch said he doubted the conspiracy theory
- Fox News is accused of helping to promote false claims that the voting-machine maker flipped millions of votes away from Trump
“Some of our commentators were endorsing it,” Murdoch said while being questioned under oath in a US$1.6 billion suit by Dominion Voting Systems Inc., according to excerpts included in a court filing Monday.
“About the endorsement of a stolen election?” a lawyer asked.
“Yes,” Murdoch said. “They endorsed.”
Fox News is accused of helping to promote false claims that the voting-machine maker flipped millions of votes away from Trump. Murdoch’s testimony was disclosed by Dominion in its fight against a request by Fox to get a judge to throw out the lawsuit.
Murdoch testified that he seriously doubted Trump’s conspiracy theory right away.
“It is fair to say you seriously doubted any claim of massive election fraud?” Murdoch was asked by a Dominion lawyer.
“Oh, yes,” Murdoch said.
“And you seriously doubted it from the very beginning?” he was asked.
“Yes,” Murdoch replied. “I mean, we thought everything was on the up-and-up. I think that was shown when we announced Arizona.”
Even so, Fox News went on to report on the conspiracy theory for weeks after the election, repeatedly hosting its biggest proponents, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and long-time Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, among others.
Fox has urged the judge to rule against Dominion without a trial, arguing the voting-machine maker failed to make its case.
On Monday, the media giant criticised Dominion’s filing as an attempt to “generate headlines” rather than put forth valid legal arguments.
Fox has argued that its coverage of claims by Trump’s lawyers were inherently newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Dominion said the case should proceed. “Fox asks the Court to hold that it has no legal responsibility whatsoever for broadcasting even the most horrible allegations that it knows to be false, as long as they are ‘newsworthy,’” the voting-machine maker said in the filing.
Murdoch’s testimony and other material in the filing shed light on Fox’s internal deliberations as it covered the election-rigging claims and sought to avoid losing viewers to alt-right competitors that embraced Trump’s false narrative.
Dominion’s reputation is also at stake as it seeks to recover from what it has described as irreparable harm to its business.
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US Congress certifies results of presidential election after Trump supporters storm the Capitol
A five-week trial is expected to begin on April 17.
Dominion has argued that internal communications and depositions by Fox personnel prove the network knowingly spread falsehoods about Trump’s loss in the 2020 US presidential election to bolster its ratings.
Dominion claims in its filing that Murdoch closely monitored Fox coverage but declined to wield his powerful editorial influence despite strong concerns about Fox’s coverage.
Dominion’s motion for summary judgment, filed this month, was replete with emails and statements in which Rupert Murdoch and other top Fox executives say the claims made about Dominion on-air were false – part of the voting machine company’s effort to prove the network either knew the statements it aired were false or recklessly disregarded their accuracy. That is the standard of “actual malice,” which public figures must prove to prevail in a defamation case.
