A recent filing in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News reveals the extent to which the network knew it was pushing false claims to its viewers in the aftermath of the 2020 election by suggesting that Dominion’s machines were involved in voter fraud. Totalling 192 pages, the lawyers for Dominion lay out a seemingly endless list of facts and evidence that show how — from producers to on-air personalities to executives to Rupert Murdoch himself — “literally dozens of people with editorial responsibility” at Fox acted with, in their view, “actual malice,” which is the legal standard for defamation.
The filing includes text messages between Fox Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott demonstrating that the pair understood it was “unarguable” to claim that election fraud misinformation broadcast on Fox News by “high-profile Fox voices” led viewers to believing that the 2020 presidential election could be overturned on January 6.
In fact, Fox executives provided 50 examples of Fox News broadcasts that illustrated that Murdoch’s claim was “unarguable”
From page 13 (emphasis in original):
Broadcasters make choices about what to air. While that platform comes with tremendous power, it also carries an obligation to tell the truth. Fox, “one of the most influential news properties in history,” Ex.128, Lowell 30(b)(6) 624:20-25, decided to use its megaphone to spread falsehoods. It deceived millions of people. The First Amendment not only allows...
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