geoff: A new court filing shows
top executives at Fox News and
leading network personalities
privately dismissed former
president Donald Trump's false
claims of voter fraud in the
days that followed the 2020
presidential election, even as
they pushed those same lies on
television.
Sean hannity: Tonight every
American should be angry.
You should be outraged.
You should be worried and
concerned about what happened in
the election and the lead up to
this election.
Judge Pirro: The dominion
software system has been tagged
as one allegedly capable of
flipping votes.
Tucker Carlson: How, for
example, did senile hermit Joe
Biden get 15 million more votes
than his former boss, rock star,
crowd surfer Barack Obama?
Geoff: The court filing reveals
that behind the scenes many of
the network's top stars and
executives derided trump's
election lies as mind-blowingly
nuts, and totally off the rails,
even as they criticized
colleagues for pointing that out
on TV.
The filing is part of an ongoing
defamation lawsuit filed against
the network by dominion voting
systems.
Joining me now is David
folkenflik, who covers media for
NPR.
David, thank you for joining us.
First, explain how we learned
about these text messages,
Xavier Becerra part of this
nearly -- how they are part of
this nearly $2 billion
defamation lawsuit against fox.
David: It is a blockbuster case
filed by dominion services, a
company at the core of a lot of
these claims of fraud ventilated
by Fox News in the wake of the
November 2020 elections.
We have this voluminous filing
from dominion that appeared
last night.
Trying to convince the judge
even before the trial portion,
he should decide the case in
their favor.
I don't think there's any
expectation that should happen,
but they have compelled an
almost encyclopedic record of
what was happening in real-time,
drawing on text messages and
emails and other communications
as well as sworn depositions in
which fox stars, executives and
journalists were forced to
acknowledge what they thought
about things under questioning
from dominion's lawyers.
It is a brutal portrait we have
seen about the cynicism, the
sense of crisis and the fear and
anger generated inside fox in
reaction to their audiences
recoiling from the network's own
call of Arizona for Joe Biden on
election night.
The first of any major network
to do so.
Geoff: What becomes clear
reading through this filing is
fox knowingly peddled election
lies for ratings.
There is a text in particular
from tucker Carlsen suggesting
that a Fox News white house
correspondent should be fired
for fact checking a trump claim
about the election.
He says please get her fired.
I'm actually shocked, it needs
to be stopped like tonight, it
is measurably hurting the
company, the stock price is
down, not a joke.
How concerned was fox about
losing viewers to the right wing
rivals?
David: It was feverishly anxious
about this issue and raised
fears in sight vitriol, anger,
and you see that in the private
message between tucker Carlsen
and I believe Sean hannity.
You saw the chief executive
Suzanne Scott lashing out at
their Washington managing
editor, senior executive over
political news for the network
because he took part in fox
News's call of Arizona for Joe
Biden, which was what its
audiences did not want to hear.
People talked internally about
breaking credibility and trust
between Fox News and its
viewership built up over pony
five years.
-- Over 25 years.
You don't hear them talking
about how credit ability and
trust can be broken by not
sticking to the facts and yet
Fox News time again brought on
people, including than president
trump but also his surrogates
like Sidney Powell, Rudy
Giuliani and others, to make
claims that they were mocking
and denigrating and trashing
behind the air to one another.
They knew it was false but they
were trying to rebuild that
trust in a hurry as millions of
viewers fled fox, often for a
more conservative, smaller
rival.
Geoff: You mentioned Sidney
Powell, Sean hannity said in a
deposition, "The whole narrative
Sidney Powell was pushing, I did
not believe it for one second."
How has Fox News responded to
all of this and what if anything
does it do to their brand?
David: Fox will say that they
were reporting newsworthy
allegations from inherently
newsworthy people about
inherently newsworthy events,
national elections, and
allegations by a sitting
president.
Could there be a more newsworthy
person?
They will say Fox News is
standing in for the press writ
large and there has to be robust
room for hyperbole and
overstatements and misstatements
when we are talking about
important issues of national
uncle -- national concern.
Otherwise there isn't free
speech.
Geoff: You've covered Fox News
for more than 20 years.
What stood out to the most from
this revelation?
David: It's the most visceral
and tangible proof of one of the
strongest criticisms of fox, it
functions in many ways as a
political operation and a
business improvise -- is this
enterprise and wrapped itself in
news, even with a cadre of
journalists who many of them
believe in reporting straight.
I think you see the liability of
that.
And the cynicism and antagonism
to the idea of being held
responsible, that they behave
responsibly or they have any
obligation to the facts.
That's usually where people find
credibility and trust.
In this case, they saw it only
in telling people what they want
to hear.
Geoff: David, thanks again for
your time.
David: You bet.