{"id":306499,"date":"2025-11-24T23:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/306499\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T23:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:02:08","slug":"fox-corp-chief-told-sean-hannity-that-trump-could-not-go-on-air-in-2020-if-he-attacked-network-fox-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/306499\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox Corp chief told Sean Hannity that Trump could not go on air in 2020 if he attacked network | Fox News"},"content":{"rendered":"

New revelations about the tense relationship between Fox News<\/a> and Donald Trump<\/a> in the fall of 2020 have emerged in a trove of thousands of court documents<\/a> released on Sunday as part of a massive defamation lawsuit filed against the network by voting technology company Smartmatic.<\/p>\n

One exchange showed that Lachlan Murdoch<\/a>, the chief executive of Fox News parent company Fox Corp, told star anchor Sean Hannity in a 1 October 2020 text chain that Trump could not appear on Fox again if he attacked the network.<\/p>\n

\u201cSean, sorry, but the president is not coming back on air if he uses it to attack us,\u201d Murdoch wrote to a group that also included his father, Rupert, and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott. \u201cIt is the same rule we have with the other side. This is a golden rule,\u201d signing the message with \u201cThx L.\u201d (In a 1 October 2020 interview<\/a> with Hannity, Trump said Fox<\/a> was \u201ca much different place than it used to be\u201d.)<\/p>\n

Hannity\u2019s response to Murdoch\u2019s message was redacted. The situation got worse in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, when many Fox News supporters turned against<\/a> the network, including Trump himself, leading to something of an existential crisis<\/a> at the long-dominant channel.<\/p>\n

In a separate correspondence after the November 2020 presidential election, after many Trump supporters had grown angry at Fox News over its call<\/a> of the state of Arizona for Joe Biden, Hannity acknowledged the anger from the president\u2019s side. \u201cTrump people hate Fox,\u201d he wrote to a producer. \u201cHate hate hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Fox<\/a> publicly stood behind its Arizona call in the face of internal and external blowback, according to a 6 November 2020 email from Scott, Lachlan Murdoch said that Fox should consider reversing its call of the state of Arizona for Biden if his margin fell below 1% of the vote. \u201cI\u2019m not recommending we do that at this time,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

The documents released on Sunday are copies of the exhibits that were cited in previous filings between the parties. They include both longer versions of previously cited conversations and many new internal text messages and email exchanges that have not previously been made public.<\/p>\n

In a previously unreported 23 November 2020 email to his son, Rupert Murdoch<\/a> suggested they chat about the viewer backlash against Fox News. \u201cGetting killed in audience numbers,\u201d he wrote. \u201cAll day long. We have to keep our nerve but worth a discussion. Won\u2019t hurt subscriber revenue, but will soon cut into [advertisements].\u201d Lachlan Murdoch wrote that he would call his father the following morning. \u201cAgree re FNC,\u201d he wrote. \u201cKeeping me awake at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another previously unreported 21 January 2021 email to his son Lachlan, Rupert wrote that he was \u201cstill getting criticism for [Fox News Channel]. Saying leading voices encouraged stolen election bullshit and pushed Jan 6 rally.\u201d In the same thread, Murdoch talked about ousting business network host Lou Dobbs. \u201cJust take him off the air and negotiate later,\u201d he wrote. Dobbs\u2019s show was cancelled the following month.<\/p>\n

The elder Murdoch also talked about hiring former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile, saying that it\u2019s \u201chard to attack a Black woman\u201d.<\/p>\n

The documents released on Sunday also included a version of Smartmatic\u2019s deposition of Rupert Murdoch. When asked by a Smartmatic lawyer whether he took any steps \u201cto make sure that hosts with shows on Fox News Media did not endorse claims about the 2020 election being stolen,\u201d Rupert Murdoch responded: \u201cNo. No.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very happy [with] the way Fox News was handling it,\u201d Rupert Murdoch said of the network\u2019s post-election coverage.<\/p>\n

Rupert Murdoch also acknowledged that Fox News made a decision to \u201cpivot\u201d after the election by \u201cmoving away from our support of Trump\u201d. But he said it was difficult to do so. \u201cOur very large audience tended to be Trump supporters,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want to upset them totally. That, we did before. They\u2019d been attacking us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murdoch also affirmed that he believed Trump\u2019s claims of a stolen election contributed to the January 6 US Capitol attack<\/a> \u2013 though he denied it was a \u201criot\u201d and said it was \u201cintended to be just be a rally outside the Capitol\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his own deposition, Lachlan Murdoch said he didn\u2019t think Fox News did anything to \u201cendorse\u201d claims of election fraud made by Trump\u2019s supporters. He also re-affirmed the journalistic value of covering the president\u2019s election fraud claims. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine a more newsworthy story than the sitting president of the United States calling into question the election results,\u201d he said, according a transcript of his deposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not make the allegations against Smartmatic. The president and his lawyers and associates made the allegations against Smartmatic,\u201d Lachlan Murdoch said. \u201cWe reported those allegations, which I believe were incredibly newsworthy. So we did not make an apology for reporting the sitting president\u2019s allegations about a voting system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smartmatic was indicted by the Department of Justice last month as part of an investigation into bribery in the Philippines. The company denies the charges, calling the indictment \u201ctargeted, political, and unjust\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fox News has strenuously denied Smartmatic\u2019s claims and said the company has vastly overstated its value.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence shows that Smartmatic\u2019s business and reputation were badly suffering long before any claims by President Trump\u2019s lawyers on Fox News and that Smartmatic grossly inflated its damage claims to generate headlines and chill free speech,\u201d a Fox News spokesperson said. \u201cNow, in the aftermath of Smartmatic being criminally charged with bribery in the Philippines and the Government\u2019s motion to include evidence of Smartmatic\u2019s business dealings in Venezuela and Los Angeles County, we are eager and ready to continue defending our press freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox had petitioned the judge in the case to delay the trial, pending the criminal case against Smartmatic, but on Monday that effort was denied.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s decision is an important victory for Smartmatic as we progress in our efforts to hold Fox accountable for its lies,\u201d a Smartmatic spokesperson said. \u201cThe court made clear that Fox\u2019s attempts to delay accountability won\u2019t work, and its day of reckoning is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both parties are tentatively scheduled to argue their case for summary judgement next month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New revelations about the tense relationship between Fox News and Donald Trump in the fall of 2020 have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-306499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}