Murdoch and Fox execs gave platform to 2020 election deniers after viewer backlash: lawsuit

Both Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems have filed court documents Monday making the case that the judge should either dismiss the case or make a summary judgment without a trial.

Among the details that were documented in the Dominion filing was the revelation that Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch met with Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott about the "mounting viewer backlash to Fox" that they were facing as a result of calling Arizona for Joe Biden.

Calling Arizona for Biden was ultimately the correct estimation, but because Fox was the first to make the call, former President Donald Trump blamed the network. Jared Kushner wrote in his book that he spoke to Rupert Murdoch, who explained that there was nothing he could do because Arizona wasn't "even close."

As a result, Dominion alleges that Murdoch and Scott decided to deploy a strategy that involved giving the election liars full run of the network.

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"Rupert conceded that in that conversation, they also spoke about 'the future of Fox going forward,'" the documents say. "Rupert confirmed that they discussed how Fox should react to the fact that Trump was not conceding. And Rupert confirmed that the decision was to allow these 'wild claims' on air, although he phrased it as his lawyers now do that it was only a matter of 'reporting news.'"

Question: "And you were aware that Fox News was having these people appear on the television under Fox's banner to spread these charges?"

Murdoch's answer: "We report the news, and we have dozens of people a day on the channels that are talking about the news. And this was big news. The president of the United States was making wild claims, but that is news."

Executives were aware of brand polling by VP Raj Shah's team in mid-November 2020. According to the court documents, the details showed "[p]ositive impressions of Fox News among our viewers dropped precipitously after Election Day to the lowest levels we’ve ever seen."