The decision by Fox News executives in November 2020 to treat the more hard-right Newsmax as a mortal threat spawned a possibly more serious danger.
Since 2002, when Fox News first overtook CNN as the most-watched cable news channel, one thing has been as certain and predictable as its dominance: Every time a Democrat wins the White House, the right-leaning network’s ratings take a momentary dip.
That happened after the election of President Joe Biden in 2020, too. But the reaction inside Fox News was far different than before.
There was panic. From the chairman of Fox Corp. on down, executives scrambled as they tried to keep viewers tuned in, believing they were facing a crisis. Now, because of the decisions made after former President Donald Trump’s loss, Fox News is reckoning with a threat that could prove far more serious.
A US$1.6 billion ($2.5 billion) defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems claims Fox News knowingly spread false information about the role of the firm’s election technology in a made-up conspiracy to flip votes. On Tuesday (Wednesday NZ time), the two sides will present oral arguments before a judge in Delaware state court as they prepare for a trial next month.
Fox News has insisted that it wasn’t presenting claims about Dominion as fact but was reporting and opining on them as any news organisation would.
As part of the suit, Dominion obtained thousands of internal Fox News emails and text messages and deposed dozens of Fox News employees. That evidence shows in extraordinary detail how the network lost its way in the weeks after the election. Here is a timeline of that fateful period, as told in court filings. Some of these exchanges have been lightly condensed for clarity.
November 3, 2020
A sales record
On Election Day, Fox News was riding high. A draft of an internal memo written by the executive who oversees advertising for the network, Jeff Collins, described the sales records the channel had just set:
Election update news
- 11 of the top 15 revenue days in Fox News history occurred since the first presidential debate on 9/29.
- Election Day saw the highest linear revenue in Fox News history despite significantly reduced commercial load.
- According to Kantar, Fox News booked more political revenue than any other broadcast or cable network.
November 8
’A lot … to think about’
But a few days later, when Biden was declared the president-elect by all the major news organisations, including Fox News, viewership started to fall. The company’s top executives, including Rupert Murdoch, chair of Fox Corp., and Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, noticed.
In an email to Scott, Murdoch wrote:
SUBJECT: Ratings
Getting creamed by CNN! Guess our viewers don’t want to watch it. Hard enough for me!
They’ll return. (Not for Chris Wallace!)
Laura Ingraham very good and gracious.
Anyway, football today!
A half-hour later, Scott forwarded the email to Fox News President Jay Wallace. She described her recent discussion with Murdoch and his son Lachlan, CEO of Fox Corp., about how the network could begin to regroup post-Trump:
SUBJECT: Fw. Ratings
Long talk with KRM and Lachlan (told them first 72 hours will be the worst of it) they are expecting
- major overhaul of polling (WSJ doing same and will no work with NBC)
- audiences don’t want to see too much of the Mayor Pete’s and Coons etc in the news hours. Need to be careful about bookings next 2 months - especially in news hours
- breaking news reporting and investigative units need to get back in the game been beaten by digital reporters on breaking news this past year.
Talk more tomorrow - a lot for your to think about this week.
November 10-11
’It’s all our viewers care about’
A week after the election, a consensus quickly hardened inside the network: It could not continue to lose viewers to a much smaller right-wing cable news rival, Newsmax.
Dana Perino, a Fox News host and former spokesperson for President George W. Bush, texted Colin Reed, a Republican strategist, about the worry brewing:
… But there is this RAGING issue about fox losing tons of viewers and many watching - get this - newsmax! Our viewers are so mad about the election calls (as if our calls would have been any different. It’s just votes!)
Another host, Tucker Carlson, texted with his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, about the fact that viewers were angry that Carlson had ignored allegations of voter fraud that night in his broadcast — a subject that Newsmax had been hammering:
Pfeiffer:
You told me to tell you if we are getting attacked on Twitter so I will. Many viewers were upset tonight that we didn’t cover election fraud.
Carlson:
Yeah. Probably should have.
Pfeiffer:
Yeah I didn’t get why we didnt. Assumed it was some sort of decision not to.
Pfeiffer:
But it’s all our viewers care about now
Carlson:
Mistake.
Carlson:
I just hate that shit.
Pfeiffer:
Yeah its honestly awful
Pfeiffer:
did you see this?
[Texts a tweet with an excerpt of a Washington Post article that quotes an anonymous Republican official who says Trump will eventually get tired of claiming he was cheated and leave office.]
Pfeiffer:
Its like birtherism 2.0. A grassroots movement the GOP leadership thinks they can control and go away but this wont.
November 12
’I do not know if this is true or not’
Around the same time, there was also concern that some of what Fox News hosts and guests were alleging on the air might be wrong. Fox Business’ senior vice president of programming, Gary Schreier, wrote to a group of Fox executives to alert them about an unfounded rumour that Fox Business host Lou Dobbs had just floated on the air. Schreier was evidently concerned it could become a public-relations headache.
SUBJECT: Lou with Rudy FYI
Spoke about servers for the voting machines in foreign country. I do not know if this is true or not. Lou at the end of the segment said “This has the feeling of a coverup.”
Just in case it gets picked up.
November 16
’Everything at stake here’
Rupert Murdoch’s concerns remained focused on the continued ratings decline. In an email to Scott, he wrote:
SUBJECT: Items!
After you’ve settled in let’s talk about things. See today’s piece in Journal about Newsmax. These people should be watched, if sceptically.
Trump will concede eventually and we should concentrate on Georgia, helping any way we can. We don’t want to antagonise Trump further, but Giuliani taken with a large grain of salt. Everything at stake here.
November 17
’HUGE’
Quickly, the shows that peddled false information began to see a lift in ratings.
Schreier texted his boss at Fox Business, Lauren Petterson, about the viewership for Sunday Morning Futures, a political talk show hosted by Maria Bartiromo. But at the same time, the two executives appeared concerned that Dominion’s side of the story wasn’t being told on Dobbs’ show or Bartiromo’s.
Schreier:
You see smf ratings?
Petterson:
Huge
Schreier:
Like … HUGE. tentpole and then some.
Petterson:
I think jay’s guidance needs to reach the Dobbs team. Thoughts?
Schreier:
Sorry I actually called Jeff after the meeting. They do mention dominion responses each show he says. I emphasised to keep Doing it. What do you want to do about Maria? I am not sure she does that though. (State dominion denial.)
November 19
’Respecting our audience’
When Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, members of Trump’s legal team, held a news conference and spouted elaborate conspiracy theories about stolen votes, Kristin Fisher, a correspondent who covered the White House for Fox News, reported on it for the network. Her report was full of fact-checks and highly sceptical — too sceptical for her higher-ups at Fox News.
Shortly after she got off the air, she received an angry call from her boss, Bryan Boughton. She described it at length in her deposition.
Q:
What did Mr. (Bryan) Boughton say to you?
Fisher:
He expressed his great unhappiness with my live shot. He emphasised that higher-ups at Fox News were also unhappy with it. And he told me that I needed to do a better job of respect — this is a quote — “respecting our audience.”
Q:
Was it your understanding that you had done something that was disrespectful of Fox’s audience?
Fisher:
No. I believed that I was respecting our audience by telling them the truth.
A few weeks after her coverage of the event, Fisher texted a colleague to complain that she had effectively been pulled off the air ever since:
I’m 100 per cent being muzzled. After my Giuliani live shot and that six-minute long fact-check of Trump on SR (Special Report, the 6pm Fox News programme), I have had zero live shots from the White House. I’m being punished for doing my job. Literally. That’s it.
Fisher then explained that she was quitting in disgust:
I couldn’t defend my employer to my daughter while trying to teach her to do what is right. I couldn’t get over that. So I’m leaving six weeks paid leave on the table and taking a paycut.
Three producers who oversee Sean Hannity’s 9pm programme — Robert Samuel, Ron Mitchell and Tiffany Fazio — texted one another, saying privately what a disaster the news conference had been. At the same time, they saw how popular the fraud narrative was with their audience.
Samuel:
dont know how closely you’ve looked at our charts this week but audience much more interested in voter irregularities than covid hypocrisy and race/obama’s book tour, at least for our show
Samuel:
Trump and his team have put us in an awful spot
Mitchell:
Totally agree. They turned it into an instant circus.
Fazio:
This is just not good
Then Hannity and Fazio separately discussed the bind the network was in, and criticised Fisher for reporting accurately on claims of fraud.
Fazio:
Fox clearly panicking. They purchased an add promoting you, Tucker and Laura during the NFL game tonight.
Hannity:
It’s very bad. I saw Fisher live. Wrote Suzanne and she said she’s already on it.
Hannity:
Tiff irreparable harm to the brand imho
And Scott was on it. She emailed Jay Wallace, president of Fox News, to complain.
SUBJECT: Kristen Fisher today at the top of Dana’s show
I’m getting major incoming on her editoralising at the top of Dana’s show and her dismissive tone and indifference to the audience.
We need to manage this.
I saw she just did a hit in Cavuto. I hope she didn’t double down.
I can’t keep defending these reporters who don’t understand our viewers or how to handle stories.
Novmber 22
‘It’s a great story if it’s true’
Dobbs, whose programme uncritically spread some of the most outlandish claims about Dominion, privately expressed doubts about the veracity of Powell’s accusations. He shared them with his producer, John Fawcett, who said he also wasn’t sure Powell could back up what she was saying, including about Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Still, Dobbs continued to invite her on his show.
Fawcett:
I just don’t think she is verifying anything she is saying.
Like Brian Kemp is taking bribes. I’m sure he is, but where is the proof
Dobbs:
Sidney will make us all sick of the “Kraken” soon! And I hope it’s a provable narrative – cuz it’s a great story!
Fawcett:
It’s a great story if it’s true, otherwise it just a Fairytale!
November 29
’Our audience doesn’t want to hear about a peaceful rransition’
Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures was another consistent source of falsehoods about Dominion. She and her producer, Abby Grossberg, texted at length about the fraud allegations and how they resented the pressure they were getting from certain executives to shift course.
At one point, Bartiromo and Grossberg discussed the interview that Bartiromo had just conducted with Trump. Bartiromo asked Grossberg if she should have also asked Trump about his plans for a smooth transition.
Bartiromo:
Do you think we shdvgsve just stayed the extra 5 minutes & talked about peaceful transition ect
[The two text about other matters for a few messages.]
Grossberg:
To be honest, our audience doesn’t want to hear about a peaceful transition
Grossberg:
They still have hope.
Then, the two make disparaging comments about the head of weekend programming at Fox News, David Clark, who had been critical about the Trump interview. Clark has emerged as one of several Fox News executives who started raising concerns about the network’s coverage of unfounded voter fraud allegations.
Grossberg:
When he called, that moron clark said he would have liked more time with Ken Starr. “I didn’t hear anything new” and then he again mentioned that it was a good space filler. Smug piece of s-t.
Grossberg:
I told him the interview was viral and then suggest he rewatch at 3p because there was a lot to digest.
Grossberg:
Clark just needed to get the final word in. I hate when he calls. Love when I thanked him for working on his vacation and he said “I lead by example.” F-u.
Bartiromo:
What a moron
January 6, 2021
Trump phones into Fox but is denied airtime
Late in the afternoon on the day of the attack on the US Capitol, with the halls only recently cleared of rioters, Trump called into Dobbs’ programme and wanted to go on the air. Fox News executives said no — their starkest action yet indicating how recklessly they believed Trump was behaving.
Petterson, president of Fox Business, home to Dobbs’ show, explained why in her deposition.
I didn’t think it would be responsible to have him go on the air. And what he intended to do was tell his side of the story while the Capitol is under siege, a woman is in critical condition and more people could get hurt. And he hadn’t at that point come out and, you know, asked the violence to be quelled. So I thought it would be irresponsible to put him on the air … it could impact a lot of people in a negative way.
A month later, on February 5, Fox News cancelled Dobbs’ show.
January 20
’Pretty much a crime’
After the January 6 riot, even the most ardent Trump defenders, including Hannity, told their colleagues at Fox News that they were appalled, the court filings show. Executives discussed yet another pivot for the network — this time firmly away from Trump.
Some of the most extensively documented disdain for Trump inside Fox came from the chair himself, Rupert Murdoch. Repeatedly, the documents show, he expressed scorn for Trump and disgust at the direction that the president had led the Republican Party, which he said in his deposition was “destroying itself at the altar of Trump.” In one email on Inauguration Day, Murdoch wrote:
The more I think about McConnell’s remarks or complaint, the more I agree. Trump insisting on the election being stolen and convincing 25 per cent of Americans was a huge disservice to the country. Pretty much a crime. Inevitable it blew up Jan. 6th. Best we don’t mention his name unless essential and certainly don’t support him. We have to respect people of principle and if it comes to the Senate, don’t take sides. I know he is being over-demonized, but he brought it on himself.
Trump has appeared on Fox News far less frequently in the three years since. And Murdoch testified in his deposition that the two had not spoken since early 2020.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Written by: Jeremy W. Peters
Photographs by: Erin Schaff, Rebecca Nobel, Emil Lippe and Tamir Kalifa
©2023 THE NEW YORK TIMES