The aftermath of the 2020 presidential election sparked a civil war within Fox News, as the network that had spent years building record profits and ratings by catering to fans of then President Donald Trump saw millions of those viewers peel away.
In private notes to one another, Fox's top stars spat fire at their reporting colleagues who debunked Trump's claims of election fraud, even as they gave those allegations no credence. "We are officially working for an organization that hates us," said prime time host Laura Ingraham.
Reporters said they were being punished simply for doing their jobs. One producer told colleagues he was quitting because he could not justify working for Fox anymore.
And the network's chief executive, Suzanne Scott, said pressure from conservatives online meant that she couldn't defend "these reporters who don't understand our viewers and how to handle stories."
These exchanges, some of which have been quoted by previous legal filings, have been captured by Dominion Voting Systems' legal team. The election tech company is suing Fox for $1.6 billion over bogus claims it helped cheat Trump of victory in 2020. Fox maintains the false charges, spread by a sitting president and his advocates, were inherently newsworthy, and that any challenge to its ability to air such claims represents a strike against First Amendment principles.
The level of discovery in this case — an avalanche of...
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