Key takeaways:
- Rupert Murdoch, Executive Chairman of Fox Corporation, admitted in court documents that Fox News hosts were spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud.
- Murdoch said he found half of Trump’s claims to be “bulls— and damaging.”
- Murdoch has declined to rein in Fox News hosts despite his private opinion that their claims were false.
Fox Corporation Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch has admitted in court documents unsealed Monday that he was aware of Fox News hosts spreading false claims of widespread voter fraud in the days after the 2020 election.
Murdoch, who is the chairman of Fox Corporation, acknowledged in a deposition taken by Dominion Voting Systems that some Fox News hosts endorsed false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. He said that he saw little evidence for then-President Donald Trump’s claims and that he found half of them “bulls— and damaging.”
Murdoch said in the filing that Fox News was “trying to straddle the line between spewing conspiracy theories on one hand, yet calling out the fact that they are actually false on the other.” He added that “some of our commentators were endorsing it.”
The hosts in question include Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, who Murdoch said had done more than just give a platform to baseless claims of voter fraud. Murdoch rejected that the right-wing talk network as an entity endorsed former President Donald Trump’s election lies.
Murdoch has declined to rein in Fox News hosts despite his private opinion that their claims were false. The court documents unsealed Monday provide insight into the inner workings of Fox News and the role of its executive chairman.
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