Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News commentators ‘endorsed’ Donald Trump’s false claim the 2020 presidential election was rigged, even though Murdoch said he doubted the conspiracy theory.
Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News’s popular commentators “endorsed” Donald Trump ’s conspiracy theory about the 2020 presidential election, even though Murdoch said he doubted the claim, according to a filing in a defamation lawsuit. “Some of our commentators were endorsing it,” Murdoch said while being questioned under oath in a US$1.6 billion suit by Dominion Voting Systems Inc., according to excerpts included in a court filing Monday. “About the endorsement of a stolen election?” a lawyer asked. “Yes,” Murdoch said. “They endorsed.” Fox News is accused of helping to promote false claims that the voting-machine maker flipped millions of votes away from Trump. Murdoch’s testimony was disclosed by Dominion in its fight against a request by Fox to get a judge to throw out the lawsuit. Murdoch testified that he seriously doubted Trump’s conspiracy theory right away. “It is fair to say you seriously doubted any claim of massive election fraud?” Murdoch was asked by a Dominion lawyer. “Oh, yes,” Murdoch said. “And you seriously doubted it from the very beginning?” he was asked. “Yes,” Murdoch replied. “I mean, we thought everything was on the up-and-up. I think that was shown when we announced Arizona.” ‘We love our president’: Trump’s hold on base a problem for Republicans Even so, Fox News went on to report on the conspiracy theory for weeks after the election, repeatedly hosting its biggest proponents, former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell and long-time Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, among others.
