福克斯新聞早就知道”選舉欺詐”是荒謬謊言，但是依然不遺餘力地傳播

海闊天空

【2023-02-16德拉瓦州】根據一份新近解封的法庭文件顯示，在2020年大選後的幾天和幾周內，福克斯新聞頻道反覆播放虛假聲稱，川普被騙走了勝利。其實福克斯新聞的大牌播音員當時就知道選舉欺詐的說法是離譜的、虛假的，但是他們依然在該網絡將其作為可信的內容進行宣傳。

這份文件摘自參與選舉報道的福克斯新聞員工的一系列內部通信，其中包括一些評論和引語，顯示該網絡的製作人、高管和明星知道選舉不是被盜，許多欺詐指控是假的。這些通信表明，福克斯新聞將欺詐指控作為提高收視率和安撫保守派觀眾的一種方式，因為高管們擔心這些觀眾會放棄該頻道而選擇其他保守派媒體--尤其是在福克斯新聞是第一個預測喬-拜登贏得亞利桑那州這一關鍵戰場的網絡之後。

在節目之外，該網絡的明星、製片人和高管對這些陰謀表示蔑視，稱其為 "令人震驚的瘋狂"、"完全脫離軌道 "和 "完全是胡說八道"--往往用更接地氣的語言。該網絡黃金時段的頂級明星--塔克-卡爾森、勞拉-英格拉姆和肖恩-漢尼提--在群聊中對這些說法表示輕蔑，但也譴責了公開或在電視上指出這些說法的同事。

這份法庭文件是美國最大的投票設備製造商之一--多米尼克投票系統公司對福克斯新聞提起的16億美元誹謗訴訟中最新公開的一份文件。

根據這份法庭文件：

·         著名的福克斯新聞主持人肖恩-漢尼提說："西德尼推動的整個敘述，我一秒鐘都不相信。

·         "看着朱利安尼! 真正瘋狂的東西。魯珀特-默多克在11月中旬的一封電子郵件中說，他創辦的網絡播放了一場冗長、漫無邊際的新聞發布會，特朗普的律師魯迪-朱利安尼和鮑威爾在會上提出了關於可入侵投票機和涉及外國共產主義者的廣泛陰謀的指控。

·         塔克-卡爾森在選舉結束後不久告訴一位製片人，鮑威爾在選民欺詐問題上 "在撒謊"。卡爾森在當月晚些時候給福克斯新聞主持人勞拉-英格拉姆(Laura Ingraham)發了同樣的短信，並說 "這太瘋狂了"，"這對我來說是令人難以置信的冒犯。我們的觀眾都是善良的人，他們相信它"。

·         主持人勞拉-英格拉姆告訴卡爾森，鮑威爾是 "一個完全的瘋子。沒有人願意和她合作。同理，"她指的是前紐約市長和特朗普的支持者魯迪-朱利安尼。卡爾森回答說，他認為鮑威爾的謊言 "令人難以置信地冒犯"，因為他們的 "觀眾是好人，他們相信它"。

·         "她是一個f------ 瘋子，"卡爾森的製片人亞歷克斯-菲弗在談到鮑威爾時寫道。

In the days and weeks after the 2020 elections, the Fox News Channel repeatedly broadcast false claims that then-President Donald Trump had been cheated of victory.

Off the air, the network's stars, producers and executives expressed contempt for those same conspiracies, calling them "mind-blowingly nuts," "totally off the rails" and "completely bs" - often in far earthier terms.

The network's top primetime stars - Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity - texted contemptuously of the claims in group chats, but also denounced colleagues pointing that out publicly or on television.

Employees at Fox News knew that claims blaming Donald Trump’s 2020 loss on election fraud were outlandish and false, even as the network promoted them as credible, a newly unsealed court filing appears to show.

The document, which pulls from a host of internal communications from Fox News employees involved in election coverage, includes comments and quotes revealing that producers, executives and stars of the network knew that the election wasn’t stolen and that many fraud claims were bogus. The communications suggest that Fox News zeroed in on fraud claims as a way to boost ratings and appease their conservative viewers, who executives feared were abandoning the channel for other conservative media outlets — particularly after Fox News was the first network to project that Joe Biden had won the key battleground of Arizona.

A number of prominent network stars who sometimes embrace conspiracy theories on their shows said in private that they knew that Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who filed election lawsuits to stop multiple states that Joe Biden had won from certifying their elections, was not telling the truth, according to the filings. 

“That whole narrative that Sidney was pushing, I did not believe it for one second," prominent Fox News host Sean Hannity said, according to the legal filing.

The filing is the latest to be made public in the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, one of the largest manufacturers of U.S. voting equipment, against Fox News.

What the documents revealed

• "Watching      Giuliani! Really crazy stuff. And damaging," Rupert Murdoch said in      an email in mid-November, as the network he founded broadcast a lengthy,      rambling press conference in which Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Powell made allegations of hackable voting machines and a      wide-ranging conspiracy involving foreign communists.

• Tucker      Carlson told a producer soon after the election that Powell “is lying”      about voter fraud, the documents show. Carlson would text Fox News      host Laura Ingraham the same thing later in the month, adding that “it’s      insane” and “it’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good      people and they believe it.”

• “She      is a f------ nutcase,” wrote Carlson’s producer, Alex Pfeiffer, referring      to Powell.

• “This dominion s--- is going to give me a      f------ aneurysm,” Ingraham's producer, Tommy Firth, wrote at one point,      according to the filing. Firth had concluded the Dominion claims were      false, according to the filing.

• Host Laura Ingraham told      Carlson that Powell is “a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto      with Rudy,” referring to former New York mayor and Trump supporter Rudy      Giuliani. Carlson replied that he found Powell's lies "unbelievably      offensive" because their  "viewers are good      people and they believe it," according to the filing.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23684956-2023-02-16-redacted-dominion-opening-sj-brief-18

https://www.nbcnews.com/media/private-fox-news-stars-staff-blasted-election-fraud-claims-bogus-court-rcna71123

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/17/fox-news-hosts-2020-election-fraud-claims-dominion-lawsuit/11279957002/

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/16/media/fox-news-stars-executives-court-documents/index.html