Rupert Murdoch has just had the worst week of his professional life since the phone hacking scandals shut down his British newspaper News of the World in 2011.
The latest revelations of malignant misconduct involve his American cable TV station Fox News. Executives and “news” anchors have just revealed to the world that they deliberately deceive the three million-plus viewers they grift for their income.
Messages they feed their deluded audience include:
- America is a great nation of and for white Christians;
- Minorities, including LGBTQ people, women, and folks of other colours and faiths should know their place and hold their tongues;
- Donald Trump was an outstanding white nationalist leader;
- Before that, Trump was a successful businessman;
- Trump resoundingly won the 2020 presidential election;
- The election was stolen from Trump via two nasty corporations;
- The Republican Party comprises stalwart patriots, while the Democrats are woke liberal traitors.
Court filings released last week show that most Fox anchors and executives know these messages are the opposite of the truth.
Legal context
Voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox Corporation for defamation after allegations that its machines flipped Trump votes to Biden votes in the 2020 election.
If Dominion can show Fox presenters knew they were lying, that is prima facie evidence of malice, which is necessary for complainants to prove in the USA. A summary judgment hearing which could decide the case in Dominion’s favour without a trial is scheduled for 21 March.
Falsifying Joe Biden’s victory
Court filings released last week reveal that on election night in November 2020, Fox was the first broadcaster to call Arizona for Biden, signalling Biden had won. This triggered an immediate backlash from angry Trump supporters. Within an hour of the Arizona announcement, Fox CEO Suzanne Scott sent an internal email which started a debate about falsifying the results.
Fox anchors Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity expressed anger at the prospect of losing viewers if Fox reported Biden’s victory truthfully. Carlson told his producer: “We worked really hard to build what we have. Those fuckers are destroying our credibility. It enrages me.” This referred to Fox staff who were announcing accurate vote counts.
Producer Robert Samuel defended truthful reporting: “gotta be super careful on any allegations since people can say ‘you’re pushing that American democratic system can’t be trusted’.”
Samuel was overruled. The decision was taken to falsify the outcome in order to retain viewers who were threatening to switch to other fact-denying channels.
That night, Sean Hannity told his audience, “it will be impossible to ever know the true, fair, accurate election results. That’s a fact.”
Real beliefs about Trump’s incompetence
On Jan. 4, 2021, Carlson texted colleagues, “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it [Trump’s presidency], because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Carlson continued. “I truly can’t wait ... I hate him passionately.”
The lies go on and on
Despite knowing Trump lost the election and is unfit to serve, Fox anchors and executives continue to spread the lies.
Carlson is now pandering to a fresh far-right conspiracy theory: Those who invaded the Capitol on 6 January were peaceful tourists who have wrongfully been portrayed as insurrectionists by the wicked liberal media.
“The protesters were angry,” he said last Monday. “They believed that the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted, and they were right. In retrospect, it is clear the 2020 election was a grave betrayal of American democracy.”
*
This is an abbreviated version of an article published today in Independent Australia. The original article is available here in full for free:
https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/murdoch-presenters-and-executives-admit-they-lie-to-you-routinely,17318
*