Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott instructed reporters not to fact-check Donald Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election, saying it “has to stop now.” This is the latest update in the news organization’s ongoing defamation battle with Dominion Voting Systems.
During a hearing earlier in March, Dominion Voting Systems, which is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion, shared a slideshow with responses and emails from court members ranging from Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to Included were messages from the Executive VP of Primetime. programming Mead Cooper urged Fox News reporters and anchors not to fact-check Trump.
Emails sent to Cooper were edited out in earlier court filings, and the latest emails were presented at a hearing last week in Wilmington, Delaware. Slides was first reported by Media Matters for America,
“I’m going to address this with you and Jay and Lowell tomorrow,” the email, sent on December 2, 2020, said. “This is about the reporter’s tone and delivery, nothing to do with fact checking,” Fox said in a statement.
The email was made public on Wednesday by the tech company.
Another message said, “This is poor business and clearly a lack of understanding of what is going on with these shows.” “The audience is angry and we are just feeding them material. bad for business.
In another slide, Dominion showed an email from Scott saying that the company’s “talent must stop disrespecting its audience”, and sharing that if the staff “don’t get it, they’re going to leave the platform”. don’t fit the scale”.
Fox News reporters such as anchor Eric Shawn have repeatedly gone against Trump’s claims on air.
Fox News denies any wrongdoing, saying the comments in the slides were misinterpreted and do not represent the company’s editorial decisions.
“These documents once again demonstrate Dominion’s continued reliance on cherry-picked quotes to create headlines to distract from the facts of the matter,” the network said in a statement to TheWrap. “The fundamental right of a free press is at stake and we will continue to fiercely advocate for the First Amendment to protect the role of news organizations to cover the news.”
The news outlet continued in a statement: “This is not about fact checking – the issue at hand is one host calling out another.”