Lachlan Murdoch Says Fox News Reports “Without Fear Or Favor” And “Noise” Over Dominion Suit Reflects “Polarized Society” Not Law

On Tuesday’s “The Late Show,” host Stephen Colbert unsurprisingly took a moment to lay into Donald Trump’s Monday night Fox News interview with Sean Hannity, playing clips of the former president’s “rambling” answers and his refusal to play along with some of Hannity’s soft-ball questions. When it came to answering to the photo he posted to Truth Social depicting himself holding a baseball bat over Manhattan DA Alvin Brigg’s head, Trump’s response didn’t satisfy Colbert.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News is about to have one of its biggest events in years, and everyone from CEO Suzanne Scott to prominent anchors like Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo to primetime chief Meade Cooper is likely to attend some part of it. If Fox’s parent company has its way, however, Rupert Murdoch, the guiding force behind much of Fox Corporation, will not. Starting as soon as April 17, Fox Corp. could square off in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware and face allegations of defamation from Dominion Voting Systems in a whopping $1.6 billion-dollar suit that is sure to generate headlines. Before any of that can start, however, the two sides appear to locked in a battle over whether the Fox Corp. executive chairman, and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, should be present in court to give testimony.

Dominion Voting Systems’ upcoming defamation trial against Fox News and Fox Corp., scheduled to begin on April 17, may very well feature a parade of the network’s news personalities taking the stand, with both sides in the case planning to call figures including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Bret Baier.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News cut ties with Abby Grossberg Friday, Variety has learned, after the booker and producer for such hosts as Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo alleged in court filings earlier this week that she was coerced by executives into providing misleading testimony in the $1.6 billion defamation suit that Dominion Voting Systems has levied against the Fox Corp.-backed outlet. Grossberg, who had worked as a senior booking producer for Bartiromo and head of booking for Carlson, alleged in filings in Delaware Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that Fox attorneys worked to “coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News,” according to her Delaware lawsuit.

Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer has sparked rumours of a rift within his family after reportedly missing both of his daughters' weddings. Charles Spencer, 58, is believed to have been absent as Lady Amelia, 30, married Greg Mallett, 30, in South Africa earlier this week.

private texts of him denouncing former president Donald Trump were released earlier this month as part of Fox News’ ongoing lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, Carlson addressed the damning messages Tuesday in conversation with conservative host Bo Snerdley on WABC Radio.“I love Trump,” Carlson said, later adding that he was “humiliated” at the time and “enraged” that his private texts were aired out for all to see. You can listen to the conversation below via MediaMatters.“I spent four years defending his policies and I — I’m going to defend them again tonight,” Carlson said of Trump on Tuesday. “And actually, and I’m pretty straight forward, I’m — I love Trump.

is asking $1.6 billion in damages – significant, but not a potential death-blow for the crown jewel of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire – for what it says are defamatory statements about its voting machines in multiple reports, guest segments and host commentary immediately following the 2020 election. Defamation cases hinge on “actual malice,” proof that the defendant intended harm – and Dominion has been pushing hard on that front in it pretrial efforts.Fox has maintained it was merely doing the news, and was protected by its framing of even the wildest election conspiracy theories as allegations and speculation.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor A producer for Fox News who has worked for Maria Batirormo and Tucker Carlson alleged in court filings Monday that she was coerced by executives into providing misleading testimony in the $1.6 billion defamation suit that Dominion Voting Systems has levied against the Fox Corp.-backed outlet. In filings made Monday Delaware Superior Court and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Abby Grossberg, who had worked as a senior booking producer for Bartiromo and head of booking for Tucker Carlson, alleged that Fox attorneys worked to “coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News,” according to the Delaware lawsuit.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Fox News Media, known best for shows led by Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, is placing new emphasis on programming that relies more heavily on Kevin Costner, weather emergencies and Greg Gutfeld. In a meeting with advertisers slated to be held Tuesday, executives at the Fox Corp.-backed operation, will spotlight a growing array of lifestyle content, while continuing to nod to the political programming that draws some of its networks’ biggest audiences. Among the Fox News Media executives scheduled to be on hand were Suzanne Scott, the CEO, and Jay Wallace, president and executive editor. “If you take a look at our overall audience across all of Fox News Media, 40% comes from lifestyle – sports, weather, entertainment offerings,” says Jeff Collins, executive vice president of advertsing sales for Fox News Media. “We just want to reiterate to our clients the depth and breadth of this type of content that we have outside of just hard news.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The battle for cable-news viewers is coming to March Madness. CNN intends to run a new promo during the heavily watched NCAA men’s basketball tournament that throws a sharp verbal elbow at Fox News Channel and the legal defamation case filed against it by Dominion Voting Systems. The promos will air starting this weekend on TNT, TBS, TruTV and CBS, all of which carry the games under a joint rights agreement held by the owners of those networks, Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery, which is also the parent of CNN. Fox News Channel is not mentioned in the promo script, reviewed by Variety, but the references are clear. “What should you expect of a news network?” asks the narrator. “Some bury the truth, while we fight to reveal the facts. The only side we are on is yours.” Viewers see images of CNN correspondents and anchors such as Abby Phillip and Clarissa Ward.

With the 2024 presidential election getting closer, twice-impeached former president is turning hard on his party (or at least, those who have fallen out of step with him). It’s getting to a point where Seth Meyers thinks it’s not outside the realm of possibility for Trump to eventually backtrack his long criticisms of Barack Obama.During his “A Closer Look” segment on Thursday night, Meyers mocked Florida governor Ron DeSantis for attracting “the bloodshot Eye of Sauron” as he potentially gets closer to announcing a presidential bid.

Fox Corp. is planning a major building overhaul and expansion of its Century City lot including nine new soundstages as well as a media campus, office space and focus on related transportation infrastructure.

During a campaign appearance in Iowa on Friday, Ron DeSantis coined a new phrase: “woke-ocracy.” And Seth Meyers is pretty sure he only did that to trip up twice-impeached former president Donald Trump in any future debates they might have.The term came during the Florida governor’s speech in Davenport, where he once again returned to his latest favorite talking point, and complained that “woke ideology has infected so many institutions.” He encouraged audience members that “You can’t just say ‘Let it go,’ because then we’re gonna be living under an oppressive woke-ocracy.”“Well that just rolls right off the tongue,” Meyers mocked on Wednesday night. “Woke-ocracy.

Fox News Channel viewers are less trusting of the cable network in the wake of publicly disclosed text messages and emails from Fox executives and on-air personalities, according to a new survey.  But only 9% of Fox News viewers say they aren’t watching the network as much as they used to, per research provided exclusively to Variety Intelligence Platform by consumer insights specialists Maru Group. (Click to an expanded subscriber version for full results.) A representative for Fox News told VIP+, “There has been no impact to advertising, with no advertisers dropping or pausing.” 

congress might ban TikTok, using a bunch of very funny TikTok videos to illustrate his point. Then he moved on to the news that Donald Trump might be in some serious legal trouble.“It sounds like former President Donald Trump will likely face criminal charges for his hush money payments to Stormy Daniels,” Fallon continued.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Everything seems like it’s going great at Fox Corporation, except for the fact that everything seems like it isn’t. While speaking at an investor conference Thursday, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch praised his family’s decision to sell off a large swath of cable and studio assets to Walt Disney Co. in 2019, a move that left Fox significantly smaller and focused largely on live TV, mainly news and sports. He even brought up a reference to the 1979 comedy “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” in which a small combatant unencumbered with armor or muscle is able to survive a colosseum fight after his larger opponent suffers a heart attack. “We are the little guy,” said Murdoch. “We are going to be the one that survives.”

Dominion Voting Systems and Fox offered dueling views of defamation law in their latest filings, as each side seeks a summary judgment ruling that could forestall a planned trial in April.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Someone has to handle the truth. In the 1992 legal drama, “A Few Good Men,” a senior military commander played by Jack Nicholson is asked over and over if he ordered a “code red,” or an off-the-books dictate that sent underlings scurrying to do something they probably should not have done. Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch and many of the top executives and anchors at Fox News Channel may feel like they are stuck in a reboot of that film. In a remarkable series of depositions that have been made available from much-scrutinized litigation between voting-technology company Dominion Voting Systems and Fox Corporation, top officers at Fox and its most lucrative subsidiary, Fox News Media, are grilled over whether they have direct responsibility for stories, talent and reporting that airs on Fox News Channel or Fox Business Network. In many instances, the executives say they do not.

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.

Fox News is citing newly found emails from Maria Bartiromo’s personal account that they intend to use in their defense of Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit.