During the discovery process leading up to the trial where the Dominion voting company is suing Fox News for defamation, documents have been released from depositions showing that in internal communications, Fox News personalities knew from the get-go that the claims of election fraud that were being propagated by Donald Trump and his cronies were utterly bogus but they spread them anyway.
Hosts at Fox News privately ridiculed Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen while simultaneously peddling the same lies on air, according to court filings in a defamation lawsuit against the network.
Rightwing personalities Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham are among those named in the $1.6bn action brought by Dominion Voting Systems, the seller of electronic voting hardware and software that is suing Fox News and parent company Fox Corporation for maligning its reputation.
“He’s acting like an insane person,” Hannity allegedly wrote of Trump in the weeks following the election as the host continued to push the so-called “big lie” during his top-rated prime time show, aided by a succession of election deniers he had on as guests.
…Meanwhile, Carlson, one of the network’s most prominent and controversial stars, was disdainful of Sidney Powell, a senior Trump attorney who repeatedly claimed Dominion’s machines flipped votes cast for Trump to Joe Biden.
“Sidney Powell is lying,” he wrote to a producer, the Dominion lawsuit alleges. He referred to Powell in a text as an “unguided missile” and “dangerous as hell”.
Trump, Carlson said, was a “demonic force” who was good at “destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
Hannity, meanwhile, said in a deposition “that whole narrative that Sidney was pushing, I did not believe it for one second”, according to Dominion’s filing.
Other internal communications revealed that Fox News executives, hosts and researchers used phrases including “mind-blowingly nuts”, “totally off the rails” and “completely BS” to describe the false election theories they were publicly promoting.
Fellow host Ingraham told Carlson that Powell was “a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy,” referring to the former New York mayor and Trump supporter Rudy Giuliani.
…“From the top down, Fox knew ‘the Dominion stuff’ was ‘total BS’,” the brief states.
“Not a single Fox witness testified [in depositions] that they believe any of the allegations about Dominion are true. Indeed, Fox witness after Fox witness declined to assert the allegations’ truth or actually stated they do not believe them.”
This should come as no surprise to anyone. Fox has a well-deserved reputation for lying in service of its particular agenda. What is new is to have them admit it in their own words.
The filing also shows how Hannity and others were critical of their own network for its early call of Arizona for Biden on election night, which enraged Trump. Hannity texted Carlson and Ingraham that the call “destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable”, while Carlson called it an “act of vandalism”.
Yes, it is an ‘act of vandalism’ for reporting accurately, if that goes against you agenda.
One could say that Fox should be ashamed of itself except that feeling shame requires one to have a sense of honor and integrity and Fox has neither.
Why do we call them “personalities?” Is that like calling the obnoxious obnoxious drunk racist uncle who ruins every family gathering a “character?”
Trump, Carlson said, was a “demonic force” who was good at “destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
There once was a lady from Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside
And the smile on the face of the tiger.
The “brand” they have been building for 25 years is composed entirely of lies. That’s not something to be proud of, or to protect. They are just telling lies in the present to serve the lies of the past.
What I find most disgusting about all this is that none of the other networks trying to compete with Fox are running with this as a selling-point. Seriously, how hard is it to say “Fox is full of malicious hateful liars, [NBC/ABC/CBS] is more reliable — so watch us instead for all the information you need!”? Isn’t that why we have free(ish) enterprise here instead of state-run media? Where’s all that competitive capitalism driving innovation and keeping everyone honest when we really need it?!
Raging Bee, definitionally, people who watch [NBC/ABC/CBS] already watch [NBC/ABC/CBS], whereas those who watch Fox would have to watch [NBC/ABC/CBS] in order to get the message from [NBC/ABC/CBS].
In short, that message to watch them would only be seen by those who already watch them.
The audiences aren’t siloed, and even if they were, the show hosts themselves often address criticisms of them from the other channels, which would bring the criticisms into view for that audience anyway.
Holms, it must be truly bewildering see such a lack of media-savvy from [NBC/ABC/CBS].
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What’s ore amusing is that their lying lies are their (successful) defence:
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye
@5 John Morales:
They can advertise on other shows and other networks besides their own news shows. Buy some ad time on “Power Slap” or “19 Fat Amish Kids’ Weddings” or “Swamp Truckers” or whatever the latest TLC and History Channel trash shows are. Also sportsball games.
Good point, Ridana; even more suggestive evidence to the effect that [NBC/ABC/CBS] utterly lack media savvy. And clearly, “Power Slap” or “19 Fat Amish Kids’ Weddings” or “Swamp Truckers” or whatever the latest TLC and History Channel trash shows constitute the best place to promote their far superior journalistic standards.
Not bewildering, those channels have demonstrated a pattern of defensiveness for years now, hurriedly defending themselves against whatever nonsense charge Fox throws at them, while hardly ever taking the offensive. It’s the sort of calculus we might expect when we remember these media outlets are also for-profit corporations: protect business interests rather than take a stand for journalistic integrity. It’s as predictable as it is disappointing.
Holms:
Um, the very term “disappointing” refers to ‘failing to fulfil hopes or expectations’. Which is to say, it would be perverse to be disappointed by that which is utterly predictable.
But yes, that is the nub.
Presumably, those media enterprises would surely do what Raging Bee hopes they did, were it a profitable endeavour.
(Any comment on my second point @7?)
Who said ‘utterly’ predictable? If you really want to be pointlessly pedantic -- a known tendency of yours -- keep an eye on the specific wording used. “It’s as predictable as it is disappointing” leaves room for hoping for better.
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I’m not sure what comment you are looking for. Lying is their strategy, and they’re quite open about it.
@ 12 Holms
Still waiting for you guys to get it through your heads that Morales is just saying anything to get a rise out of you -- he knows his “arguments” are nonsense; ironically just like Fox. Anyway…
No they’re not and that is exactly the point. In court on the stand, in private communication, sure. But publically pretending that the lie is the truth.
“The “brand” they have been building for 25 years”
uh, Fox was literally CREATED back in the 80s in service to neoliberal propaganda. Go read quotes by Roger Ailes, the man who created Fox, and why he did it.
reality was too biased against them, it seems.
Holms:
I said it to illustrate the ineluctable inference to be made from your self-quoted claim.
If not predictable, not disappointing.
If not very predictable, not very disappointing.
If rather predictable, rather disappointing.
And if utterly predictable, utterly disappointing.
(Your claim, not mine)
Something regarding my second point @7.
Ichthyic, huh.
“All business is basically about customers and marketing and making money and capitalism and winning and promoting it and having something someone really wants.”
(https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/roger-ailes-quotes)
Fairly predictable, fairly disappointing. Why would you expect either extreme? Solved it for you, but it’s good that you have a hobby.
“[a comment] regarding my second point @7.” See: “Lying is their strategy, and they’re quite open about it.” It’s right there.