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The bombshell court filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6 billion defamation case against Fox News has exposed the right-wing cable channel as “a propaganda network like never before.”
That’s according to CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy, who told viewers Friday morning, “I think these messages really just expose Fox News as a propaganda network. That’s what they do at the core.”
Darcy was referring to the damning text messages, emails, and other communications and testimony related to Fox News’ handling of Trump’s “Big Lie” and other false election fraud claims in Dominion’s nearly 200-page court filing that has been widely reported overnight. That document includes comments from the network’s top personality Tucker Carlson, showing him as more worried about how one reporter’s tweet was affecting the company’s stock price than the substance of her remarks: fact-checking Donald Trump.
READ MORE: A ‘Demonic Force’: Bombshell Text Messages Reveal How Tucker Carlson Really Felt About Trump
The texts show Fox trapped in a dilemma of its own making, afraid to admit the election was honest bc they’ll lose viewers to Newsmax. Tucker rages and tries to get Fox reporter @JacquiHeinrich fired after she admits the election wasn’t stolen. pic.twitter.com/jyadnISWYK
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) February 17, 2023
Possibly one of the most damning portions is an excerpt about Rupert Murdoch, chairman of the board of Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News. The Daily Beast’s Will Sommer highlights a portion where Murdoch directs Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to “concentrate” on the Georgia Senate races to help Republicans “any way we can.” While the text does not show Murdoch using the word “Republicans,” there no other way to legitimately interpret those remarks.
Here’s Rupert Murdoch telling Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to focus on winning the GA Senate races for Republicans, “helping any way we can.” pic.twitter.com/s8WcBgSiEp
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) February 17, 2023
Indeed, Sommer calls the almost 200-page filing “one of the most remarkable documents I’ve ever seen,” and adds: “Filled with private texts between Fox stars like Hannity and Carlson, plus Murdoch, all admitting they knew Fox’s stolen election claims were lies.”
CNN’s Darcy apparently agrees, telling “CNN This Morning” co-hosts, “I mean, they show in excruciating detail that the highest ranking executives at Fox News, Rupert Murdoch, Suzanne Scott, the CEO, as well as some of the top hosts, like you just mentioned, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingram. They knew, they privately knew these election fraud claims from the Trump team were nonsense. They use very harsh language to describe them.”
Darcy says, “they allowed these lies to take hold on the network’s air and they show, these messages show, that the talent over at Fox News and the executives were very worried after the election of the audience rebelling, that they were going to Newsmax. You’ll remember that Donald Trump was attacking Fox News saying, ‘turn the channel go to this Newsmax channel,’ which is saturating the airwaves with election denialism. They were worried about this, and not only did they turn a blind eye to the election lies, but they even in some cases, tried cracking down on those who were fact checking Trump.”
Sommer also highlights the contempt and disdain top Fox personalities, and even Murdoch, privately had for Rudy Giuliani.
The Fox messages reveal Fox brass and top hosts tearing into Rudy Giuliani.
Hannity: Rudy’s “an insane person.”
Ingraham: “Such an idiot.”
Murdoch: “Really crazy stuff.” pic.twitter.com/PzW1t6saPB
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) February 17, 2023
“The Dominion filing offers the best look inside Fox’s internal operations that we’ve had in years, maybe ever,” Sommer concludes. “It shows Fox operating as many suspected: no compunctions about lying to viewers, and desperately tacking right to avoid losing market share to competitors like Newsmax.”
In similar remarks, Darcy points to a portion of the Dominion filing that states: “Remarkably, Fox News has no written editorial guidelines.”
“This is also really remarkable,” Darcy says in a tweet, “and distinguishes Fox News from actual news organizations. I’ve asked Fox for years what the network’s editorial standards are. Apparently, they don’t have any written down.”
Darcy, on Twitter, points to his reporting at CNN, and concludes that the Dominion “court document provided a mountain of evidence exposing Fox News as a right-wing talk channel void of the most basic journalistic ethics.”
Watch CNN’s Oliver Darcy below, view tweets above, or all at this link.
The messages contained in the Dominion legal filing expose Fox News as a propaganda network like never before. pic.twitter.com/7uI5Lcd6OW
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) February 17, 2023
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