Unsealed court documents in the Dominion Voting Systems' defamation suit against Fox "News" released yesterday reveal more deception and tolerance of lying at the upper levels of the company. Some telling testimony from News Corp. Executive and cancer on the world Rupert Murdoch show that he disbelieved the Big Lie being promoted by numerous talking heads on his network, throwing them under the bus:
"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,' Murdoch said in testimony released in the court documents.
Murdoch acknowledged in testimony that some of those hosts, including Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, had done more than just give a platform to baseless claims of voter fraud.
'Yes,' Murdoch said, according to the documents. 'They endorsed.'” (our emphasis)
The release of this latest barrage of evidence that the Fox crew knowingly lied to their mouthbreather audience for fear of them switching to another Malignant Loser-friendly station and hurting their bottom line. All the while, many of the same crew privately slammed the Malignant Loser and his coterie of kooks for their "stolen election" lie.
"The new documents were unsealed less than two weeks after an unsealed court filing exposed the communications of many Fox News executives, hosts and producers who saw claims about Dominion to be without merit. They included host Tucker Carlson's saying Sidney Powell was 'lying' about voter fraud docs, Rupert Murdoch's calling statements by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani 'crazy stuff' and 'damaging' and Hannity’s saying he 'did not believe it for one second.'
Murdoch also confirmed that he could have exerted some control over the network, most notably by telling Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to stop putting Giuliani on the air.
'I could have,' Murdoch said in the court documents. 'But I didn’t.'” (our emphasis)
That last admission is Dominion's slam dunk in their defamation suit, showing that Murdoch had the knowledge that the "stolen election" campaign was a Big Lie, but went ahead fearing backlash from the right-wing cult that Fox had cultivated for decades. That may cost them over a billion dollars:
"Jeff Kosseff, a law professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and former practicing First Amendment lawyer, said in an interview that Murdoch’s testimony suggests Dominion has 'a really strong case.'
'I can’t recall the last time that I’ve seen so much evidence of actual malice just piled on top of each other,' Kosseff said.
'That’s not to say they definitely will win, but I’d much rather be in the plaintiff's lawyers' shoes,' he said." (our emphasis)
Justice awaits.
BONUS: Murdoch also was revealed in court documents to have provided Mr. Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, with a preview of campaign ads for Biden that Fox was scheduled to air. Wouldn't that constitute an unreported in-kind campaign contribution?
(photo: Sky News)
