{"id":612602,"date":"2023-02-28T05:49:23","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T11:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/28\/rupert-murdoch-goes-off-on-donald-trump-and-foxs-own-commentators-we-want-to-make-trump-a-non-person\/"},"modified":"2023-02-28T05:49:23","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T11:49:23","slug":"rupert-murdoch-goes-off-on-donald-trump-and-foxs-own-commentators-we-want-to-make-trump-a-non-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/28\/rupert-murdoch-goes-off-on-donald-trump-and-foxs-own-commentators-we-want-to-make-trump-a-non-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Rupert Murdoch goes off on Donald Trump and Fox’s own commentators: ‘We want to make Trump a non person’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fox<\/a> Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News\u2019s popular commentators \u201cendorsed\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, even though Murdoch said he doubted the conspiracy theory right away, according to a filing in a defamation lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSome of our commentators were endorsing it,\u201d Murdoch said while being questioned under oath in a $1.6 billion suit by Dominion Voting Systems Inc., which included excerpts of the deposition in a court filing Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout the endorsement of a stolen election?\u201d a lawyer asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Murdoch said. \u201cThey endorsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox News<\/a> is accused of helping to promote false claims that the voting-machine maker flipped millions of electronic ballots away from Trump as part of a vast conspiracy involving corrupt Democrats and foreign hackers \u2014 a claim still touted by the former president and many of his allies.<\/p>\n

Murdoch testified that he seriously doubted Trump\u2019s conspiracy theory right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is fair to say you seriously doubted any claim of massive election fraud?\u201d Murdoch was asked by a Dominion lawyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yes,\u201d Murdoch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you seriously doubted it from the very beginning?\u201d he was asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Murdoch replied. \u201cI mean, we thought everything was on the up-and-up. I think that was shown when we announced Arizona.\u201d He was referring to when Fox declared Joe Biden the winner in the state on election night.<\/p>\n

Murdoch\u2019s testimony was partially disclosed by Denver-based Dominion in its response to a request by Fox in its favor without holding a trial, which is currently set for April in Delaware state court. Dominion has also asked the judge to rule in its favor without a trial.<\/p>\n

The voting-machine company argues the depositions of Murdoch and others support its claim that Fox broadcast the defamatory claims while \u201cknowing or recklessly disregarding the truth.\u201d An earlier filing by Dominion cited text messages and emails to show that a slew of on-air talent and executives knew the theory was bogus.<\/p>\n

Even so, Fox News went on to report on the conspiracy theory for weeks after the election, repeatedly hosting its biggest proponents, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and longtime Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, among others.<\/p>\n

\u2018Extreme\u2019 View<\/h2>\n

On Monday, Fox criticized Dominion\u2019s filing as an attempt to \u201cgenerate headlines\u201d rather than put forth valid legal arguments.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment,\u201d Fox said.<\/p>\n

Fox also argues that the text messages and emails cited in Dominion\u2019s earlier filing fail to support the case because the seemingly damning comments weren\u2019t made by anyone whose statements were allegedly defamatory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dominion said the case should proceed. \u201cFox asks the Court to hold that it has no legal responsibility whatsoever for broadcasting even the most horrible allegations that it knows to be false, as long as they are \u2018newsworthy,\u2019\u201d the voting-machine maker said.<\/p>\n

Viewing Biden Ads<\/h2>\n

In its filing Monday, Dominion said Murdoch was cozy with Trump\u2019s campaign, going so far as to give Trump\u2019s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner access to \u201cFox confidential information about Biden\u2019s ads, along with debate strategy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even so, Murdoch declined to help Trump after Fox declared that Biden was the winner in Arizona, Dominion said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend Jared Kushner called me saying, \u2018This is terrible,\u2019 and I could hear Trump\u2019s voice in the background shouting,\u201d Murdoch testified, according to the filing. \u201cAnd I said, \u2018Well, the numbers are the numbers.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Fox called the election for Biden on Nov. 7, 2020, Rupert Murdoch \u201clamented\u201d to his son, Fox Corp. co-Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, that things could have been handled differently, according to Dominion\u2019s filing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should and could have gone first but at least being second saves us a Trump explosion!\u201d the elder Murdoch said, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

Murdoch said in an email to the New York Post\u2019s Col Allan a few days after the election that Giuliani was a \u201cterrible influence on Donald,\u201d and that half of what Trump was saying was \u201cbullsh*t and damaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Bizarre Phase\u2019<\/h2>\n

Paul Ryan, the former Speaker of the US House who joined Fox\u2019s board of directors in 2019, sent Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch a text message on Dec. 6, 2020, about a month after the election, blasting Trump\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are entering a truly bizarre phase of this where [Trump] has actually convinced himself of this farce and will do more bizarre things to delegitimize the election,\u201d Ryan said, according to Dominion\u2019s filing.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 7, after receiving Ryan\u2019s text, Rupert wrote to Lachlan: \u201cCall me later re Trump and Paul. Trump on Saturday sounded really crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January 2021, after Fox News was accused of helping trigger the Capitol riot, Rupert Murdoch responded to internal concerns about the network\u2019s role, telling a Fox executive: \u201cFox News very busy pivoting\u2026We want to make Trump a non person.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Learn how to navigate and strengthen trust in your business with The Trust Factor, a weekly newsletter examining what leaders need to succeed. Sign up here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Erik Larson, Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News\u2019s popular commentators \u201cendorsed\u201d Donald Trump\u2019s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, even though Murdoch said he doubted the conspiracy theory right away, according to a filing in a defamation lawsuit. \u201cSome of our commentators were endorsing it,\u201d Murdoch said while being questioned under<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":612603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35284,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-612602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rupert","8":"category-trump"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}