Private messages written by Fox News hosts and executives have been released as evidence in Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion lawsuit against the media giant.
Dominion Voting Systems argues that the text messages reveal Fox News’ ethos and working environment.
Text messages written by Fox’s highest-rated host, Tucker Carlson, express different opinions than what he presented on air. Dominion claims that the host’s on-air opinions, namely his support of Donald Trump and election denialism in 2020, knowingly presented false information to viewers.
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” Carlson texted members of his staff on January 4, 2020. “I hate him passionately.”
But texts from Carlson after the January 6 Capitol insurrection called Trump a “demonic force.”
“Trump has two weeks left. Once he’s out, he becomes incalculably less powerful, even in the minds of his supporters,” Carlson texted his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, on January 7.
This week, Carlson used his show to go relitigate the insurrection – whose participants he now calls “meek and orderly” tourists.
“We hate vandalism. We hate assault,” Carlson said on Wednesday. “Was it a violent insurrection? It was not.”
“More than 44,000 hours of surveillance footage from in and around the Capitol have been withheld from the public, and once you see the video, you’ll understand why,” he said. “Taken as a whole, the video does not support the claim that Jan. 6 was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim.”
Carlson’s text messages come nearly a week after revelations that Fox News executive Rupert Murdoch testified that he didn’t believe Trump’s false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 election.
