Fox hosts endorsed Trump's lie that Prez elections were rigged: Murdoch

He acknowledged this while being questioned under oath in a $1.6-bn suit by Dominion Voting Systems

Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged under oath that some Fox hosts “endorsed” the notion that the 2020 US presidential election was stolen, according to a court filing unsealed Monday.

Murdoch’s acknowledgment is included in a filing from Dominion Voting Systems, part of the voting technology firm’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and parent company Fox Corp over Fox’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election.

Documents in the case in Delaware state court show Murdoch and other Fox executives believed Joe Biden fairly beat Donald Trump and that the results were not in doubt. Murdoch’s testimony is from his deposition in the lawsuit.

Asked by a Dominion lawyer if some of Fox’s hosts had endorsed the idea that the 2020 election was stolen, Murdoch responded, “Yes. They endorsed,” according to the filing.

When questioned, Murdoch said some of (Fox’s) commentators were endorsing the narrative of a stolen election, including maybe Lou Dobbs and maybe Maria (Bartiromo). Murdoch’s testimony and other material in the filing shed light on Fox’s internal deliberations as it covered the election-rigging claims and sought to avoid losing viewers to far-right competitors that embraced Trump’s false narrative.

Fox has argued that its coverage of claims by Trump’s lawyers were inherently newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Dominion’s reputation is also at stake as it seeks to recover from what it has described as irreparable harm to its business.

A five-week trial is scheduled to begin on April 17. Dominion has argued that internal communications and depositions by Fox personnel prove the network knowingly spread falsehoods about Trump’s loss in the 2020 US presidential election in order to bolster its ratings.

Dominion claims in its filing that Murdoch closely monitored Fox coverage but declined to wield his powerful editorial influence despite strong concerns about Fox’s coverage.

Murdoch testified that he believed early on that “everything was on the up-and-up” with the election, and that he doubted claims of election fraud from the very beginning.

Dominion’s filing opposes Fox’s motion for summary judgment, which seeks a ruling in the media company’s favor that would preempt the need for a trial on certain legal issues.