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When Rupert Murdoch addressed MPs in Westminster in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that had engulfed his tabloid News of the World, he said it was “the most humble day of my life”. As part of his crisis management he had sought to isolate the offending publication and stop the spread of the scandal. He now faces a comparable crisis at one of the jewels in the crown of his media empire: Fox News.
As Guardian US chief reporter Ed Pilkington tells Michael Safi, a lawsuit threatens to expose the news channel’s attitude to accuracy and journalistic credibility and hit it financially. Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News alleging defamation after the channel repeatedly broadcast claims that the 2020 election was rigged against Donald Trump using its technology.
Now news of Murdoch’s own deposition in the $1.6bn lawsuit has emerged. Not only did he admit that he knew that Fox News hosts spread lies about the 2020 presidential election being stolen from Trump, but he confessed he had allowed them to keep on doing so on air to millions of viewers. If in the past his strategy has been to isolate himself from his company’s scandals, this marks a notable new turn.
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