Fox News has come under much scrutiny after revelations that many of their on-air personalities not only knowingly promoted lies through guests they knew to be lying but endorsed those lies as well. In a deposition as part of the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems, controlling owner Rupert Murdoch acknowledged as much, choosing not to add perjury charges to possibly losing a $1.6 billion lawsuit.
Fox News may be hoping for a settlement in which they do not admit guilt, but Dominion seems determined to get a guilty verdict and a public admission that Fox lied. While that may be satisfying to many. The truth is that Fox News could absorb the $1.6 billion fairly easily; it’s admitting they lied that irks them.
Included in Murdoch’s deposition is information that seems worse that most people are overlooking. Court filings indicate that Murdoch gave confidential information on the Biden campaign to Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House Advisor Jared Kushner, including debate strategy, and showed him ads purchased by the Biden campaign before they ran,
“During Trump’s campaign, Rupert provided Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, with Fox confidential information about Biden’s ads, along with debate strategy.”
The Biden Campaign should sue Fox News for not the $1.6 billion sought by Dominion Voting Systems but maybe $150 billion for trying to tilt the election unfairly to the candidate of their choice. Who says their fraudulent failure to respect the privacy of their clients who advertised on Fox in good faith? Why should we believe Fox only shared confidential information about the Presidential election? They may have shared data in every Senate, House, and Governor’s race, all the way down to school board elections.
Fox News shouldn’t be allowed to continue to take money from advertising campaigns and then give that confidential data to their opponents. Maybe they weigh in on Republican races as well? Taking DeSantis campaign funds and providing private data to Trump or vice versa.
After reading the court filing describing Fox News sharing data with the Trump campaign. Former Lincoln Project Executive Director Fred Wellman said:
“There are multiple crimes in this single paragraph. Whomever placed those ads on Fox should sue immediately. The FEC must investigate this as illegal support to the Trump campaign. The DOJ must open an investigation into fraud and theft.”
Exactly! And we have yet to learn of the scope of the material provided to Trump and who else may have benefitted.
This isn’t a case where the Fox News network should b given even a hefty fine or forced to stand in the corner after apologizing. Fox News needs to be sued into oblivion and then forbidden from ever handling another advertising dollar. It’s okay for them to be slanted and advocate for the candidates of their choice; we expect that. It isn’t okay to use lies, deception, and fraud to change the results of investigations.
The next time Merrick Garland testifies before Congress. He needs to be asked about Fox News. Fox shouldn’t be allowed to have a correspondent at White House briefings until this matter has been addressed and cleared up. Jared Kushner participated in this illegal transaction and needs to be investigated as well. Doing nothing now only ensures we see more of this behavior later—time to nip it in the bud.
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This post was previously published on The Polis.
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