Mesa County’s many, many supporters of Donald Trump (pdf) must be super-bummed this week to find out Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch has acknowledged that Fox News anchors Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and others knowingly lied to them by repeating Donald Trump’s fraudulent statements that the 2020 general election was “rigged” and he actually won.
Murdoch acknowledged under oath in a deposition in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox Network, that Fox News hosts knowingly lied to viewers by endorsing false election fraud claims while at the same time they were privately ridiculing such claims. Murdoch further admitted he should have ordered Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who were lying to the public about the election, off the air, but didn’t.
A trove of text messages and emails released as part of Dominion’s lawsuit showed Rupert Murdoch privately called Trump’s false election claims “really crazy stuff.”
Mesa County is full of die-hard Trump supporters/Fox News viewers who believed the network’s lies about election fraud. The Fox Channel clung to the lie out of fear of losing viewers to media outlets like OAN (One America News), a far-right, pro-Trump network that won viewers by lying about the election to an audience that desperately wanted Trump to win the 2020 election.
In a private text, Fox News star Tucker Carlson told Laura Ingraham that Trump attorney “[Sidney] Powell is a nut.” Carlson told his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, that “Sidney Powell is lying.” Pfeiffer told Carlson, “I don’t think there is evidence of voter fraud that swung the election.” Ingraham told Hannity and Carlson in private texts that “Sidney Powell is a bit nuts. Sorry but she is.”
Yet when Powell appeared on Lou Dobbs’ show just days after these exchanges, Dobbs hailed Powell as a “great American” and “one of the country’s leading appellate attorneys.”
Mesa County Commissioner Bobbie Daniel speaking at a Trump rally in Grand Junction on 10/18/2016, before he fomented an insurrection to try and stay in power.
Other similar exchanges show Fox news hosts privately ridiculed election fraud claims while continuing to lie to Fox’s viewers who desperately wanted to believe Trump had won. Fox was afraid of losing viewers by telling the truth about the election.
Some attorneys say these private conversations are “incredibly damning” and show “actual malice” by Fox News Network. Actual malice is an element that must be proven in order to prevail in a defamation case.
I thought MAGA republicans like being lied to. Isn’t that why they like Trump. Trump and his little minions lie all the time. It doesn’t matter
I don’t watch Fox. I don’t watch CNN. I don’t watch MSNBC. I don’t watch the local GJ news. I don’t read the Sentinel.
I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. I don’t care about Trump. I’ve voted Democrat or 3rd party in presidential elections for 50 years including 2016. In 2016, I voted 3rd party because I couldn’t vote for Hillary’s corruption. In 2020, I voted for Trump. I still don’t care for Trump. But, given the alternative, I decided the 3rd party vote was a weak statement.
I just stumbled across your blog. I realized that it was not the first time. In the 2022 school board elections, you convinced me to vote against ALL of your cronies.
I’m bookmarking your blog to remember who to vote against.
Where do you get your news?
That’s about the most gutless drive-by post I’ve seen in some time.
So what are you saying? You are saying nothing. And by replying to this particular post I assume you think all that fake news is correct. Certainly more accurate than this blog. Actually the opposite is true.
This is indeed shocking!
Imagine a TV network broadcasting news that their viewers are interested in!
I love to watch MSNBC and CNN. I don’t think I would be exaggerating if I said that fully 80% of their programming is about Donald Trump. This only goes to show that networks give their viewers what they want. In these cases they know their viewers have an insatiable hatred for Trump.
I kinda doubt Dominion will win. First, because they are overstating their devaluation. Also, it’s not illegal for a TV station to air what they want. They aren’t forcing people to watch.
But, it will be interesting.
I’ll just say there is a big difference between exhibiting a bias and LYING.
It will make little difference if any to the magas because they choose to believe all lies from Fox Whore News. Most are too far gone to reenter the world of Reality.
Masters of political theatre..take a bow! Soul less creatures follow along, any Pied Piper can cash in $$$ on ignorance!
Super bummed out..