Dear Editor,

The latest revelations in the Dominion Voting defamation lawsuit against Fox News Corp. came this week when internal communications from many Fox News luminaries came to light. These were part of the discovery phase of this two plus year legal battle. Dominion is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion.

It turns out that on the day after the 2020 election, a Fox News commentator correctly called Arizona for Biden. The furor over this tipping point in the electoral college tally caused many angry Fox listeners to abandon them for Newsmax, which cynically kept alive the lie that Trump won. Below is part of the blog by Heather Cox Richardson called “Letters from an American,” which includes some of these communications. Her blog attempts to explore current events in the larger context of American history. Richardson is a Professor at Boston College and an American historian. For context, Sidney Powell is a lawyer who, along with Rudy Giuliani, foisted multiple allegations of voter fraud, all thrown out in court for lack of merit.

Here’s a lengthy quote from Richardson: “Dominion Voting Systems is suing FNC (Fox News Corp) for defamation after FNC personalities repeatedly claimed that the company’s voting machines had corrupted the final tallies in the 2020 election. The filing today shows that those same personalities didn’t believe what they were telling their viewers, and suggests that they made those groundless accusations because they worried their viewers were abandoning them to go to channels that told them what they wanted to hear: that Trump had won the election.

The quotes in the filing are eye-popping: On November 10, 2020, Trump advisor Steven Bannon wrote to FNC personality Maria Bartiromo: “71 million voters will never accept Biden. This process is to destroy his presidency before it even starts; IF it even starts…. We either close on Trumps [sic] victory or del[e]gitimize Biden…. THE PLAN.”

FNC’s internal fact checks on November 13 and November 20 called accusations of irregularities in the voting “Incorrect” and said there was “not evidence of widespread fraud.”

On November 15, Laura Ingraham wrote to Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity: “Sidney Powell is a bit nuts. Sorry, but she is.”

On November 16, Carlson wrote to his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, “Sidney Powell is lying.”

On November 19, FNC chair Rupert Murdoch wrote: “Really crazy stuff.”

Hannity later testified: “[T]hat whole narrative that Sidney was pushing. I did not believe it for one second.”

Fox Politics Editor Chris Stirewalt later testified, “[N]o reasonable person would have thought that,” when asked if it was true that Dominion rigged the election.

The filing claims that FNC peddled a false narrative of election fraud to its viewers because its pro-Trump audience had jumped ship after the network had been the first to call Arizona for Biden, and its ratings were plummeting as Trump loyalists jumped to Newsmax. “I’ve never seen a reaction like this, to any media company,” Carlson wrote to Suzanne Scott, chief executive officer of Fox News, on November 9. “Kills me to watch it.”

On November 12, Hannity told Carlson and Ingraham, “In one week and one debate they destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.”

They went to “war footing” to “protect the brand.” For example, when FNC reporter Jacqui Heinrich accurately fact checked a Trump tweet, correcting him by saying that “top election infrastructure officials” said that “[t]here is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” Carlson told Hannity: “Please get her fired. Seriously…. What the f*ck? I’m actually shocked…. It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” Heinrich deleted her tweet.

A progressive source, Daily KOS, cites another Carlson quote, “According to the Dominion filing, Carlson texted his producer that weekend and said, ‘Do the executives understand how much credibility and trust we’ve lost with our audience? We’re playing with fire, for real....an alternative like Newsmax could be devastating to us.’”

The cynical game that FNC is playing shows the hold this angry base of voters has on FNC and the Republican Party as well. That is why they pushed such election denial candidates. They traded their souls to pander to this vocal minority and lost their integrity in the process. Yes, they are the loudest voices in the room. But they are just that… a minority. That’s what democracy is about. If they are so sure of their cause, get out and win votes. Win elections.

And sadly, half the country will never see these kinds of quotes or hear these contrary opinions. That’s how effective the propaganda machine at Fox is. The election was 2 1/2 bloody years ago and yet, even this week, Tucker Carlson was pushing election denial. Discrediting our elections undermines our democracy. Know Fox for the pretender it is. “Fair and Balanced?” Not even close. Pay attention America!!!

Bill Thibedeau

Gilpin County