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The defamation lawsuit reveals behind-the-scenes opinions by Fox News personalities about former US president Donald Trump, including a text message to Tucker Carlson stating, “I hate him.”
Carlson’s private text comments were revealed in court papers at the same time the former president called out the Fox News host on social media. Trump said he did a “good job” of showing excerpts from the US Capitol security video of the January 6, 2021 uprising – even though Carlson used the video to produce a false narrative about the attack.
The documents will appear amid heightened tensions between Trump and Fox.
Voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion, accusing the network of spreading false claims that the company was responsible for fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
The case will go to trial this spring, and many of the documents related to Fox’s actions after the general election were previously released.
Election fraud claims are dubious on Fox
A common theme emerging from the documents and internal depositions is that Fox executives and hosts were skeptical of the election claims being peddled by Trump and his allies, but aired and emphasized.
Fox is increasingly worried about a drop in viewership as Trump supporters reject the network’s — correctly — calling Joe Biden the presidential winner in Arizona on election night.
The exchange included Carlson’s Jan. 4, 2021, text conversation with an unidentified person, in which the then-prime host lashed out at Trump.
Carlson said that “we are very, very close to ignoring Trump tonight” and “I really can’t wait.”
Carlson said he doesn’t doubt there was fraud in the 2020 election, but that Trump and his lawyers have downplayed the case — and media figures like himself — “which is amazing. It’s really outrageous.”
Federal and state officials, the courts, a comprehensive review of states at war and Trump’s attorney general have found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election, even as Trump continues to falsely claim that the presidency was stolen from him.
Text is different from general comments
Addressing Trump’s presidential term, Carlson said, “We all pretend that we have a lot to share, because admitting what a disaster we have is very difficult to digest. But come on. Trump.”
In another text exchange more than a month earlier, Carlson belittled Trump’s business abilities: Trump’s talent, he said, “destroys things. He can easily destroy us if we play the wrong way.”
For the most part, Fox viewers hear very different opinions, such as a 2017 exchange between Carlson and colleague Greg Gutfeld in which Carlson agreed that Trump is “the greatest president there will ever be.” On the show in 2019, Carlson said that Trump is fighting as hard as he can to ensure that all people in America are treated equally under the law.
Fox, in response to a court exhibit citing Carlson released late Tuesday, said that “Dominion has been caught using distortions and misinformation in a PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press. We already know that they will say and do anything to try to win this case, but to change and even blame quotes to the highest levels of our company is beyond the pale.
Carlson continued to release security video of the Capitol attack, footage provided by Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy.
The selective release of footage to distort the historical account has drawn criticism, including from the Republican leader of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday asked Fox to stop spreading election lies.
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