Murdoch admits Fox News knowingly promoted lies
What happened
Fox News chairman Rupert Murdoch’s testimony in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network became public this week, divulging how the 91-year-old blurred the lines between the news organization and the Republican Party. The testimony shows that Murdoch allowed Fox hosts to promote the lie that the 2020 election was stolen, though he knew the claims were false. Murdoch’s deposition comes in a lawsuit brought by voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems, which argues that Fox executives and stars knowingly lied about the election and Dominion’s machines to satisfy viewers loyal to President Trump. Previously released messages between hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham showed that they, too, knew they were peddling a conspiracy theory. Murdoch said that Hannity, as well as Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs, and Maria Bartiromo, “endorsed” a false narrative. He conceded that he had the power to keep election deniers off the air. “I could have,” he said. “But I didn’t.”
The deposition also revealed that Murdoch shared confidential information about President Biden’s debate strategy and the content of his campaign ads with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, whom he referred to as “my friend.” Kushner called him directly to complain when Fox called Arizona for Biden on election night. Murdoch’s deposition enraged President Trump, who continues to claim that there is “massive evidence” of voter fraud. He said that Murdoch was “infuriating his viewers” and “throwing his anchors under the table.”
What the columnists said
Fox’s “defamation suit from hell somehow just got worse for the company,” said Jordan Rubin in MSNBC. The network is largely protected by the First Amendment, and to win Dominion needs to prove that Fox employees acted with “actual malice.” There’s an incredibly high standard for that, but “what makes Dominion’s suit unusual is the degree of evidence it has amassed that could help the voting company clear that high hurdle.” For Dominion, Murdoch’s statements are just “more ammunition.”
Murdoch’s testimony revealed “the peril of Fox’s pander-for-profit model,” said Amanda Carpenter in The Bulwark. It’s impossible to predict the outcome in this case, given the high burden of proof “but there is no question” about “Fox’s fundamental deceit.” The network “routinely commits similar smears” against others, but they lack the resources to push back. Dominion, however, “has the legal standing, deep pockets, and temerity to fight its case.”
This suit has also made clear that Murdoch “isn’t always the master puppeteer he’s reputed to be,” said Jack Shafer in Politico. He described himself as “frightened by the power Trump holds over the Fox audience” and unable to control the news anchors who peddled lies. He was more concerned with his “pursuit of power and money” than with journalistic integrity—he considered Kushner a “friend,” after all. “Nobody wants Trump as an enemy,” he admitted in his deposition. These revelations finally “strip the top layer of epidermis from his hide and expose his venal essence.”