Rupert Murdoch said some Fox News hosts and commentators endorsed the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen, according to testimony in an ongoing defamation lawsuit.
Voting-machine company Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for defamation, over false claims made on the network’s air that its technology enabled widespread fraud in the election. The new details emerged in briefs in which the companies laid out evidence they plan to present to a Delaware state court.
Murdoch, the chair of Fox News parent Fox Corp.
FOX,
-0.64%,
said Fox News commentators including on-air hosts Jeanine Pirro, Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity, endorsed the idea of a stolen election to varying degrees, according to a deposition cited in Dominion’s brief, which was unsealed Monday.
The media baron said Fox News itself didn’t endorse that narrative. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it, in hindsight,” Murdoch said, according to the filing. Asked if he could have stopped the hosts from highlighting allegations on air, Murdoch responded, “I could have. But I didn’t.”
Fox Corp. and MarketWatch parent News Corp
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share common ownership.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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