Fox News Internal Texts And Emails Show Network’s Scramble In Aftermath Of 2020 Election And January 6th: “Maybe Sean And Laura Went Too Far,” Rupert Murdoch Wrote
08.03.2023 - 04:05
/ deadline.com
A huge release of text messages, emails and deposition transcripts dropped today in the Dominion vs. Fox litigation sheds further light on the scramble among Fox News personalities and Fox Corp. executives to respond to the backlash in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election and then the repercussions after the attack on the Capitol on January 6th.
In one email that Rupert Murdoch sent to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott on Jan. 21, 2021, he wrote, “Big morning with McConnell meeting with Graham and other anti-impeachers.
“Still getting mud thrown at us! Is it ‘unarguable that high profile Fox voices fed tha story that the election was stolen and that January 6th 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.”
The exhibits also show the tension between the news side of Fox and its opinion hosts, who groused over the network’s early call of Arizona for Joe Biden, the first indication that Donald Trump would lose the election. That angered the Trump White House, with the then-president urging followers to turn to Newsmax and One America News Network, smaller conservative outlets that more fully embraced his election claims.
In one exchange, the network’s primetime hosts — Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham — groused over the news side.
“We are all officially working for an organization that hates us,” Ingraham wrote.
Ingraham alleged that Irene Briganti, Fox News’ head of communications, was “coordinating” a defense of the network’s news side. “Without question,” Carlson wrote. “She hates us.” He then claimed that Briganti called writer Victor David Hanson to