Newly unredacted messages have revealed that Rupert Murdoch, the 92-year-old owner of Fox News, played a direct role in calling the 2020 US election for Joe Biden over Donald Trump. The Guardian reported that Murdoch wrote to the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, on November 6, saying “it would be great if we call it for Biden as soon as he gets over, say, 35,000 ahead in Pennsylvania”. This was one day before Pennsylvania showed Biden leading Trump. Murdoch also had an expletive-ridden response when author Michael Wolff reported that Trump was furious over the Arizona call.
Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems are currently embroiled in a $1.6bn defamation case where Dominion alleges that the broadcaster knowingly spread false claims about its voting machines during the 2020 US Presidential Election Results day. Dominion has to prove that Fox News hosts and executives knowingly broadcasted electoral fraud claims despite knowing they were untrue. Their filing alleges primetime stars Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham did not do enough to denounce Trump’s allegations as their network kept broadcasting Trump’s claims.
