The testimony given by Rupert Murdoch as part of the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems may not be the final nail in the coffin for the conservative news network, according to one analyst.
Under questioning by attorneys, the chairman of the conservative media empire admitted that on-air Fox News personalities were allowed to continue to spread 2020 election conspiracy theories despite the fact that they, along with high-ranking executives, knew they were false.
According to the Murdoch deposition testimony, he stated, "I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” before responding to the question, "In fact, you are now aware that Fox endorsed at times this false notion of a stolen election?” with, "Some of our commentators were endorsing it. Yes. They endorsed.”
Reflecting on the testimony, the Washington Post's Aaron Blake suggested that the media mogul's answer may not be the "aha moment" outsiders might think and that Murdoch may have left the conservative network some wiggle room.
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"Unsurprisingly, Dominion’s filing treats this acknowledgment as significant, pointing to it early in its filing. It says that this shows Fox can be held liable for defaming Dominion," he wrote before warning, "... there are a couple potential holes."
"One is that it’s not clear Murdoch technically granted that all the stolen-election claims were false and that the hosts knew or should have known better — though he didn’t take issue with the Dominion lawyer’s use of the f-word and acknowledged Fox fell short by airing such claims," he elaborated. "The second is that the issue here doesn’t so much concern claims of a stolen election, generally, as it does claims that Dominion, specifically, took part in stealing the election."
Blake added the caveat, "There is no question that Fox aired such claims about Dominion — and credulously so. When it comes to whether the hosts actively endorsed them or acted with a reckless disregard for the truth, that will be for the courts to decide."
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