Fox News Chairman Rupert Murdoch acknowledged under oath that several hosts with his network promoted the false notion of a stolen 2020 election, according to newly released court documents.
In a sworn deposition that was unsealed on Monday, Murdoch was questioned about the false election claim and whether hosts like Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity promoted it. To varying degrees he acknowledged that was the case saying “yes, they endorsed.”
This recent testimony is at the center of a $1.6 billion lawsuit between Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion’s lawsuit alleges that Fox News knowingly platformed falsehoods from Trump and his lawyers — who claimed following his loss in the 2020 election that there was mass manipulation of U.S. voting systems.
During his deposition, Murdoch said Fox News itself didn’t endorse that narrative.
“I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” Murdoch said, according to the filing. When asked if he could have stopped the hosts from highlighting allegations on air, Murdoch responded, “I could have. But I didn’t.”
At the core of the lawsuit, Fox News is asking the court to rule in its favor under grounds of free speech and says Dominion Voting can’t justify the $1.6 billion in damages the company is asking for. Meanwhile, Dominion’s central allegation is that Fox was fully aware of false election claims and peddled them anyway in pursuit of profits.
The five-week trial between Fox and Dominion Voting Systems is set to begin in April.