As a reporter and an anchor for Fox News watched Donald Trump supporters gather at a rally in Washington, D.C., after his election defeat in November 2020, they both had some questions.
Many in the crowd, said correspondent Rich Edson, “are picking up on the president’s unfounded claim that there was widespread electoral interference and that the election was stolen — no proof of that.”
“What do these folks want?” wondered weekend anchor Leland Vittert. “Is it that they really believe that there’s a chance President Trump gets a second term, or are they more just trying to complain that things aren’t fair?”
When Lachlan Murdoch, the head of Fox News’s parent company, learned of this on-air exchange, he was displeased.
“News guys have to be careful how they cover this rally,” Murdoch wrote in a message to Fox News’s CEO, according to a recently revealed trove of internal documents. “The narrative should be this is a huge celebration of the president.” He also complained that Vittert took a “smug and obnoxious” tone in his coverage, capped by a combative interview with a Trump campaign spokesperson.
Advertisement
Vittert got a warning from his supervisor, who “told him to cut it out,” according to company communications. Within five months, he was no longer employed at Fox News.
Murdoch’s reaction is just one of several examples revealed in recent court filings of the fierce internal backlash aimed at Fox News journalists who rebutted election fraud claims that were popular...
The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB) has issued a formal apology to Professor Wazi Apoh, Dean of the School of Arts and Professor of Archaeology at the University of Ghana, following the c...