The Daily News Landscape: Murdoch’s Story of the Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Dominion Voting Systems Case against Fox News
That was the short but powerful headline on The New York Times’ scoop Thursday afternoon that surprised the former president, sent newsrooms into a flurry, and set into motion a historic and uncharted course for the country.
The unprecedented news sent convulsions through the media landscape, with outlets like CNN quickly shifting into breaking news mode and devoting hours of programming to wall-to-wall coverage on the major development.
Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation, deny all wrongdoing and have argued that their conspiracy theory-filled broadcasts after the 2020 election were protected by the First Amendment, because they were merely reporting on “newsworthy allegations.”
That is a small sample of the extreme rhetoric that was aired on Fox News on Thursday, where Murdoch’s company of right-wing hosts and commentators painted an “ugly portrait” of America, one in which supposedly George Soros- controlled prosecutors target conservatives in an unjust manner.
A version of this article appeared in the newsletter. This daily digest is about the evolving media landscape.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board, which is known to echo Murdoch’s personal views, published a piece calling Trump’s indictment a “sad day for the country.” The editorial suggested that the action was done for political reasons.
The editorial board of The WSJ agrees that Mr. Bragg is doing what most Democrats want. They think that Mr. Trump is at the center of the political debate. Even if he’s not convicted, they figure the indictment and spectacle will help him become the Republican nominee. They think he is the easiest candidate to beat because he motivates Democrats and divides Republicans and independents.”
The New York Post was part of Trump’s corner. The outlet’s website prominently featured a story saying Bragg “has a bad case of bias,” among other Trump-friendly articles.
I texted Murdoch on Thursday night asking how one could square his behind-the-scenes rhetoric, brought to light by Dominion Voting Systems’ case against Fox News, with the narrative his outlets were pushing. I didn’t get an answer.
The messages released are showing that the network leaders were terrified their audience would change their channel to watch Trump, a good clue as to why they chose to do that. He’s almost certainly looking after his bottom line.
Dominion Voting Systems’ historic defamation case against Fox News will proceed to a high-stakes jury trial next month, a Delaware judge ruled Friday, declining to declare a pretrial winner.
Both sides had asked Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis for a pretrial ruling in their favor, declaring them the winner at this stage. Davis decided that the case should go to trial after thousands of pages of files and exhibits.
The on-air statements, from various Fox News hosts after the 2020 election, had accused Dominion of rigging the election by flipping millions of votes from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.
“We are gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial, according to the statement.
Davis determined that the Fox News on-air statements at the heart of the litigation were either factual assertions or “mixed opinion,” which might make it harder for Fox to defend itself in front of the jury. Fox had asked Davis to consider that the statements were a commentary and therefore not libelous under the First Amendment.
Incriminating texts and emails have shown how Fox executives, hosts and producers didn’t believe the claims the network was peddling about Dominion. These revelations drove a dagger through the idea that Fox News is anything but a partisan GOP operation focused on ratings – not journalism.
The lawsuit shows how Fox employees mocked election fraud claims made by Trump, even as the network amplified them to appease viewers.
The legal filings showed how worried Fox News executives and hosts were of losing viewership to Newsmax, a smaller right-wing talk channel that was saturating its airwaves with election denialism.
A Fox News producer filed lawsuits in New York and Delaware accusing Fox lawyers of coercing her into giving false testimony.
Fox News Bans Donald Trump Election-Non-Density Lawyers from a Right-Wing Channel after a Democratic Defamation Suggestion
For example, in a “Lou Dobbs Tonight” broadcast on Nov. 24, 2020, Mr. Dobbs said: “I think many Americans have given no thought to electoral fraud that would be perpetrated through electronic voting; that is, these machines, these electronic voting companies including Dominion, prominently Dominion, at least in the suspicions of a lot of Americans.”
RonNell Andersen Jones, a law professor and First Amendment scholar at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law, said the judge had signaled that he disagreed with many of Fox’s arguments.
A text message has been made public that shows Fox News banned Donald Trump’s election-denying lawyers from appearing on the right-wing channel after being threatened with a defamation suit.
In a text message sent to TV host Maria Bartiromo, senior producer Abby Grossberg mentioned that she had received a phone call from David Clark, a Fox News executive, who stated that the right-wing channel had banned Giuliani, Powell and Ellis.
Grossberg’s text message was dated December 14, 2020. That same day, voting technology company Smartmatic sent a legal notice to Fox News demanding “full and complete” retractions for the “false and defamatory statements” that had been made on Fox News’ air. The Electoral College met on the same day and affirmed Joe Biden’s victory.
The new materials that were made public Friday included the text message and other email from senior Fox News executives.