A $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News by Dominion Voting Systems continues to wind its way through the courts, shedding some insight into the chaotic and ethical inner workings of Fox.
That includes everything from Fox News host Tucker Carlson reading and expanding the work of Holocaust deniers to a broader network systematically embracing the lies that have undermined American democracy for profit.
“It’s pretty damn clear that the motivation is a money-based machine on the side of opinion that drives all their business decisions, that drives a lot of their program decisions,” an unnamed Fox reporter told The Daily Beast last week.
Added another, “I don’t think any ordinary person can read this and see Fox as a news organization at this point.”
Amid all the commotion, here are five things from the filing that you may have missed:
Tucker Carlson “always adlibs” falsehoods into the show, according to the producer, who finds it hilarious.
“Haha tucker always adlibs on wrong information,” wrote Alex Pfeiffer, producer for “Tucker Carlson Tonight” at the time, in a 2021 exchange with another redacted recipient.
Let’s not forget that just last week, Carlson opened his show with a lecture about liars – he has been lying for years about the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Liars act in a different way,” he said, without any self-awareness. “People lie, sometimes to the point of hysteria. They hide something. That’s what they mean by lying. And they worry that you will find out what it is. Liars are fragile because over time, lies make you weak and afraid.”
Rupert Murdoch really isn’t worried about his toe on the scales for Republican causes and candidates.
Thanks to Dominion’s filing, we have learned that, among other things, the seat of Fox Corporation:
- Sharing confidential information with Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner about Joe Biden’s campaign because “[Kushner’s] my friend;”
- Fox executives instruct Fox News host Sean Hannity to “say something supportive” of Sen. Lindsay Graham in 2020 because “we can’t lose the Senate if everything works;”
- Tell Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to “help in any way possible” to lead the US Senate race in Georgia for the Republican candidate in 2020.
Tucker Carlson reads and expands on white nationalist works.
Carlson sent a text on November 17, 2020, to a redacted recipient in which he shared a link to a column by David Cole, a white nationalist Holocaust denier. The column, published on a website known for hosting white supremacist writers, argued that Republicans should do more to harm immigrants and accused them of demeaning America.
“That’s a clever piece,” returned the unknown man.
Erik McGregor via Getty Images
Fox executives and prime-time opinion talent are not happy with the network’s news.
Many of the exchanges show a huge internal divide between Fox opinion and the news division, with the network’s top talent trying to silence reporting that doesn’t reinforce its own false narrative (even if it’s known to be false, like the lie that the 2020 election isn’t rigged).
After Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich investigated Trump’s claims in 2020, for example, Hannity complained internally to senior executives.
“Sean texted me,” read an email from the company’s head of communications Irena Briganti to Fox Kuningan. “He stopped responding but wasn’t happy about it and didn’t know how it came from anyone in the news. He had serious nerve doing this.
In a different exchange between the hosts Laura Ingraham, Hannity and Carlson, Carlson said he believed Heinrich’s reporting was a fireable offense.
“Please ask for it [Heinrich] fired,” he texted Ingraham and Hannity, according to the document. “Seriously… What? I’m really shocked… It has to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s going to hurt the company. The stock price is down. No kidding.”
In the subsequent conversationThe trio then trashed the network’s news side.
“He hates all 3 of us,” Hannity wrote.
“Good,” replied Ingraham. “I don’t want to be liked by them.”
“He’s pathetic. That’s why they are so angry,” offered Carlson.
Hannity later described them as “all Shep smiths,” referring to Shepard Smith, the former Fox News anchor who left the network in 2019. After his departure, Smith publicly condemned Fox for spreading lies that harmed the nation.
Fox de-platformed Democrats after Trump lost.
At the behest of Murdoch and his son Lachlan, who also heads the network, the Fox News CEO effectively banned certain Democrats from appearing “on the news hour” for two months after the 2020 election.
“Viewers don’t want to see too much of Mayor Pete and [Sen. Chris] Coons and others on the news hour,” Scott told Fox News President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace in an email dated November 8, 2020. “Need to be careful about the order of the next 2 months – especially on the news hour.”