Dominion Lawsuit: Murdoch Says Fox Hosts Endorsed False Election Claims

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Facts

Fox News' controlling owner, Rupert Murdoch, admitted that some of the network's broadcasters endorsed false claims regarding the 2020 Election results. Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox for $1.6B claiming the network made false allegations about the ballot technology company that hurt their business.¹
While Murdoch accepted that some commentators had endorsed the claims, the company's attorneys maintain that a 'handful of selective quotes' hold no basis for a defamation lawsuit and that executives at Fox Corp. had no role in the matter.²
Murdoch's remarks were made public in a legal filing as part of the lawsuit. Murdoch claimed that in hindsight, he wished Fox was stronger in 'denouncing' claims of election fraud, with the media tycoon also describing Trump's allegations as 'damaging.'³
The Delaware court filings also disclosed that Murdoch admitted to having the authority to prevent officials who controversially questioned the election results — including Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, and Mike Lindell — from appearing on Fox News, yet he chose not to.⁴
Murdoch and his son, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, have been questioned in recent months surrounding the lawsuit, alongside Fox's chief legal and policy officer Viet Dinh. Fox News continues to claim that the core of the case 'remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech.'⁵
A five-week trial is slated to start on April 17.⁶

Left narrative, as provided by NPR Online News. It is clear from Murdoch's own admission that the media tycoon chose not to intervene and stop Fox's continued false claims surrounding the validity of the 2020 election. The picture that emerges is that both Murdoch and Fox chose to sidestep the truth in order to appease a pro-Trump audience that was angered when confronted with a loss. Fox shouldn't have aligned itself with extremists regarding election denial.
Right narrative, as provided by Ft. Freedom of the press is foundational to democracy, and Fox News’s right to report on the news, and provide opinion and analysis, is under attack. The allegations aired were extremely newsworthy at the time, and Fox gave Dominion a platform to respond. It will be extremely difficult to prove “actual malice,” even if a handful of individual commentators did support the claims, so Fox will undoubtedly prevail, and Fox journalists will continue to do their vital job.