Conservative news channel Fox News is under fire for its coverage of ‘ballot fraud’ in the last election. Where presenters made serious accusations in the broadcast, they said they did not believe anything in mutual messages.
There are currently two lawsuits against Fox News filed by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. These are companies that make voting machines. They both accuse Fox of defamation and claim that their business interests have been harmed as a result.
When Donald Trump lost the last presidential election to Joe Biden, but did not want to accept that, he began to make accusations of fraud. Some of his camp, such as ex-New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and attorney Sidney Powell, even became very explicit and were given plenty of room at Fox to do so. For example, Giuliani said that Smartmatic was specifically “created to rig the elections.” Powell claimed that Dominion is actually a Venezuelan company created specifically to keep the now-deceased President Hugo Chavez in power. Both companies went to court in 2021.
Different tone
In the case against Dominion, text messages have now surfaced that shed a strange light on Fox News’ election coverage. Prominent hosts such as Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity ostentatiously sided with Trump on their shows, as well as giving ample coverage to those who supported the president’s claims. Privately, however, they struck a completely different tone.
For example, Carlson sent a message to Ingraham: ‘Sydney Powell is lying. I caught her. Not normal’. In her post, Ingraham mentioned Powel “a complete utility‘, ‘a total madman’. Still, Powell joined Fox again a little later to propagate her conspiracy theories without much resistance. Other messages to colleagues indicate that Tucker Carlson is not as much of a fan of Trump (“He’s the best president ever”) as the average Fox viewer might expect. ‘He [Trump] is a diabolical force, a destroyer. I hate him with everything I’ve got.”
Severe damage
According to many commentators, this case has further illustrated why the Fox presenters have taken such an extreme tone for years. When Fox News announced that Joe Biden had won Arizona state shortly after the election, Carlson sent a panicked message to his producer: “Don’t our bosses realize how much credibility we’ve lost with our audience because of this?” And Sean Hannity to Laura Ingraham: ‘The damage is incalculable’.
Indeed, many viewers then switched to a channel like Newsmax, where they heard what they wanted to hear: namely that Trump had actually won. Things got worse when a Fox reporter went to fact-check Trump’s claims. Carlson tried to get her fired. “This has got to stop, tonight,” he texted Hannity. “This harms our business. The share price has fallen. No joke’.
These kinds of reports are now used by Dominion to show that Fox not only gave false information, but was fully aware of it. “Fox recklessly ignored the truth because lies were good for business.”
sound bites
Fox has always maintained that this is about freedom of expression. In addition, Dominion would “misrepresent things by merely emphasizing sound bites and omitting context.” Late last month, however, it emerged that Rupert Murdoch, Fox’s big boss, has admitted that some presenters have endorsed false accusations. “Some,” he added. ,,Not all.” In his statement, he goes on to say that “in hindsight it would have been better if we had rejected the allegations more strongly.”
Dominion’s case will go to trial in April. the company claims compensation of 1.5 billion euros. A request by Fox to stop Smartmatic’s case was rejected by the court last month. That company demands 2.5 billion. Observers are calling it the biggest crisis in Fox’s 26-year history.
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