Dominion lawsuit reveals greed, fear as Fox News’ core ‘principles’
People who remember Fox News host Tucker Carlson as a bow-tied creature of establishment Washington often wonder what happened to him.
Twenty years ago, he was a preppy Beltway habitue and impishly libertarian magazine writer; a wryly affectionate account of Al Sharpton in Liberia that he wrote for Esquire was nominated for a National Magazine Award. Now he’s the sneering, conspiracy-obsessed host of what The New York Times called possibly “the most racist show in the history of cable news.”
As the Times wrote, there’s a long-running debate about “whether Mr. Carlson’s show is merely lucrative theater or an expression of his true values.” By most accounts, Carlson shares Donald Trump’s deep cultural resentments. But as an explosive new court filing in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News demonstrates, we shouldn’t underestimate simple greed.
The brief, a motion for summary judgment in a case stemming from Fox News’ egregiously false claims of Dominion-abetted election fraud, offers a portrait of extravagant cynicism. It reveals how obsessed Carlson and other leading Fox News figures were with audience share, and their fear of being outflanked by even further-right outlets such as Newsmax.
“It’s remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things,” Bill Sammon, a Fox News senior vice president until 2021, is quoted saying. It’s a line that would fall flat on “Succession” because it’s too absurdly on the nose.
As the Dominion filing lays out, there was panic at Fox News over viewer backlash to the network calling Arizona for Joe Biden on election night. Despite its accuracy, the call was viewed, internally, as a catastrophe. “Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience?,” Carlson texted his producer. He added, “An alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.”
Hyping false claims about election fraud was a way for Fox News to win its audience back. Although the Arizona call was “damaging,” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott wrote in a text to Fox executive Lachlan Murdoch, “We will highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them.”
The network knew, of course, that Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell, a chief promoter of Dominion conspiracy theories, was a delusional fantasist. On Nov. 18, 2020, Carlson told Ingraham: “Sidney Powell is lying, by the way. Caught her. It’s insane.” Ingraham wrote back that Powell was a “complete nut.”
But according to the Dominion brief, an analysis found that “Fox viewers were switching the channel specifically to watch Sidney Powell as a guest” on Newsmax. A few days after this analysis, Powell was a guest on Hannity’s show.
At one point, Carlson did express skepticism of Powell on air, noting on Nov. 19 that she had never produced evidence for her claims. “Maybe Sidney Powell will come forward soon with details on exactly how this happened, and precisely who did it,” he said, adding, “We are certainly hopeful that she will.”
Even this gentle note of doubt produced viewer pushback. Afterward, Carlson seems to have given up trying to steer his audience away from total credulity about Trump’s stolen election claims, even though he privately called Trump a “demonic force.”
It’s certainly true that all cable news shows program with ratings in mind. MSNBC — where, full disclosure, I’m a contributor — pays much closer attention to various Trump scandals than to climate change or the war in Ukraine because it’s catering to its audience. But there is no analogue for the way Fox News treats its viewers.
In addition to MSNBC, I’ve appeared on CNN. Sometimes hosts are a little saltier when the cameras aren’t rolling, but I don’t recall ever hearing any daylight between the views they express on air and off. Fox News is unique in its bad faith.
“Respecting this audience whether we agree or not is critical,” Hannity texted Nov. 24. It’s a version of respect indistinguishable from contempt.