Fox News CEO Warns of Financial Fallout if Network Fact-Checks Trump’s Lies After 2020 Election

A new presentation from Dominion Voting Systems has revealed an email sent by Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to the company’s chairman, Rupert Murdoch, warning of the financial fallout the right-wing network would suffer if it continued to fact-check then-President Donald Trump’s lies after the 2020 election.

The presentation is part of Dominion’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, alleging that the network’s hosts and guests suggested the voting machine company tipped the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.

In the email, Scott said that the “foundational right to a free press is at stake” and that Fox News would continue to “fiercely advocate for the First Amendment in protecting the role of news organizations to cover the news.”

The presentation also revealed that Murdoch had said Trump’s claims about the election were “pretty much a crime,” and that Scott had sent a message on December 2, 2020, saying that “these documents once again demonstrate Dominion’s continued reliance on cherry-picked quotes without context to generate headlines in order to distract from the facts of this case.”

In response to the presentation, a Fox spokesperson said that the network “will continue to vigorously defend itself against these baseless claims.” The spokesperson added that the presentation “cherry-picks emails and ignores other emails that demonstrate the contrary.”