Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch said that Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham maybe “went too far” in their coverage of voter fraud claims.
The revelation comes from an email submitted as evidence in the defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox.
The redacted documents chronicle a string of texts, emails, and depositions, portraying a network that embraced election conspiracy theories amid declining viewership — despite slamming them privately.
Murdoch specifically showed skepticism about Fox News’ broadcast of Trump’s claims.
It came even as his network’s hosts increasingly and continuously platformed Trump’s allies, including Sidney Powell.
Murdoch told Scott in a Nov. 16, 2020 email that Trump would “concede eventually,” but in a Nov. 19, 2020 email to a friend he described Trump and his then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani as “both increasingly mad” due to their election claims.
He said in the email there’d “be riots like never before” if the election results were overturned in favor of Trump, according to the filings.
More than 6,500 pages were released on Tuesday, although the full extent of the evidence is not clear as many filings are heavily redacted.
The reams of documents that became public on Tuesday offer a window into Fox’s internal deliberations as it covered the election. They show top executives, producers, and hosts discussing concerns about the network’s reputation and casting doubt on the plausibility of Trump’s claims of election fraud.
Dominion has accused Fox News of knowingly spreading misinformation about Dominion’s role by those who allege voter fraud.
Dozens of Fox News hosts, producers, and senior executives are quoted in the court documents released Tuesday in Dominion’s $1.6 billion suit against Fox News.
In the days after the 2020 election, Fox’s biggest personalities expressed resentment toward their news organization.
Fox News said in a statement Tuesday that Dominion is “using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear FOX News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.”
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