'Apologize to viewers': Trump demands Rupert Murdoch make amends for not believing election lies

In a series of rants on his Truth Social platform on Thursday, former President Donald Trump doubled down on his attacks on Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, demanding the media tycoon "apologize" for admitting the 2020 presidential election result was legit.

"Rumors are flying high that idiot RINO Paul Ryan, who has greatly hurt the 'credibility' of Rupert Murdoch with his ridiculous stance that the 2020 Election was all 'peaches and cream,' will be fired 'like a dog' from the Fox Board," wrote Trump.

"Fox is going in the wrong direction, ratings are heading down, and Murdoch just threw certain very good people, who were correct, under the bus. He played right into the enemy's camp. Viewers, and MAGA, are not happy!"

In a second tweet, Trump leveled his anger more directly at Murdoch, who according to filings from Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News, freely admitted that he knew there was no truth to conspiracy theories about the election being stolen and the network only aired the lies for the money.

"Rupert Murdoch should apologize to his viewers and readers for his ridiculous defense of the 2020 Presidential Election," wrote Trump. "How many forms of cheating and rigging does he have to see? He should also apologize to those anchors who got it right, and fire the ones who got it wrong, or were afraid to speak up (of which there were many!). It’s time to get rid of Fake News, and call it like it is!"

There is no credible evidence to support the idea the 2020 election was rigged or stolen.

Fox News denies its coverage of Dominion — a frequent scapegoat of conspiracy theorists — was in any way defamatory, claiming that they were simply covering both sides of a public interest controversy and that Dominion is "cherry-picking" internal company communications to make it look as though they were knowingly promoting false information.