In The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty, a new book released in England last month that just hit the United States, journalist Michael Wolff says that when Murdoch was discussing the lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox over its depiction of the Denver-based company after the November 2020 election, he told friends, "This lawsuit could cost us fifty million dollars."
It cost Fox a lot more: Dominion sued Fox for $1.6 billion in March 2021, after months of claims that it had somehow fixed the election, claims that led to threats against the company — which had to move out of its LoDo building — and its employees. That suit was settled for $787.5 million on the day opening arguments were to begin, but Fox still faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic, another maker of election machines that was vilified for allegedly rigging the elections.
Dominion Voting Systems had to move out of its headquarters in the Old Spaghetti Factory building.
Patricia Calhoun
“Do you believe that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?” a Dominion lawyer asked.
“No,” Rupert Murdoch replied.
“Have you ever seen any credible evidence to suggest that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?”
“No,” Murdoch replied.
“Have you ever believed that Dominion was engaged in a massive and coordinated effort to steal the 2020 presidential election?”
“No,” Murdoch replied.
“You’ve never believed that Dominion was involved in an effort to delegitimize and destroy votes for Donald Trump, correct?” the Dominion lawyer asked.
“I’m open to persuasion; but, no, I’ve never seen it,” Murdoch replied.
In a January 2021 email released during discovery, Murdoch had acknowledged that two of his top TV hosts — Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham — maybe “went too far” in their denials that Trump lost the election.
In his deposition, Murdoch himself went further: “Some of our commentators were endorsing it,” he said, when asked about on-air suggestions that Trump had actually won the election. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight."
But hindsight is 20/20 — or in this case, $787.5 million. And counting.
