Media tycoon and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch admitted that commentators and analysts at the US television station supported false claims promoted by Donald Trump that there was fraud in the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden.
Murdoch’s remarks were revealed in documents made public on Monday by a court as part of a defamation lawsuit.
“Some of our commentators supported them,” admitted Murdoch, under oath, when asked if any of the station’s analysts – Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Sean Hannity – defended the false narrative that the current US president did not won the poll.
The multi-millennial also said he did not intervene to stop commentators from promoting these allegations. But he denied that the company supported, as an entity, the election of Donald Trump.
The chief executive of Fox Corporation has referred to some of Trump’s election lies as “nonsense”.
Fox News, in turn, attacked the company that took it to court, Dominion, which markets software of electronic voting, classifying the judicial process as doubtful.
“The Dominion lawsuit has always focused more on what could generate headlines than what might withstand legal and factual scrutiny,” according to a statement published by US television channel CNN.
Fox News has defended the actions of station officials, as well as guests, during the 2020 election, pointing out that allegations of live voter fraud were taken out of context.
Dominion, which filed the $1.6 billion (€1.51 billion) lawsuit, is trying to prove that those responsible for running the news channel knew that Trump’s statements were false, but that the transmitted in any way, with a view to profit.