The reams of documents that became public on Tuesday (Wednesday morning AEDT) offer a window into Fox’s internal deliberations as it covered the 2020 presidential election,alienating some viewers by being the first network to project that Biden would win the crucial state of Arizona.
The documents show top executives down to show-level producers and hosts discussing concerns about the network’s reputation and casting doubt on the plausibility of Trump’s claims of election fraud.
More than 6500 pages were released,although the full extent of the evidence is not clear as many filings are heavily redacted.
Fox has defended its coverage,arguing claims by Trump and his lawyers were inherently newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution. The network said in a statement the documents show Dominion using “distortions and misinformation” to “smear Fox News and trample on free speech”.
The unsealed exhibits contain evidence underlying both parties’ duelling motions for summary judgment,filed last month,in which they seek rulings in their favour to avert a trial.
In one exhibit,Murdoch emailed Fox News president Suzanne Scott on January 21,2021,asking:“Is it ‘unarguable that high-profile Fox voices fed the story that the election was stolen and that January 6th was an important chance to have the result overturned’? Maybe Sean and Laura went too far. All very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump but what did he tell his viewers?”