Lachlan Murdoch, whose household controls the Fox media empire, issued a full-throated present of assist on Thursday for Suzanne Scott, the chief govt of Fox Information Media, because the cable channel faces a $1.6 billion defamation swimsuit that has generated a cascade of unflattering revelations about its interior workings.
“I simply assume Suzanne Scott has executed an amazing job,” Mr. Murdoch mentioned at an investor convention in San Francisco, his first public remarks since Fox Information has come below intense scrutiny over its dealing with of spurious claims of voter fraud within the 2020 presidential election.
“The model is extremely sturdy. The core enterprise is extremely sturdy,” Mr. Murdoch mentioned, pointing to Fox Information’s vital scores benefit over its rivals CNN and MSNBC. “It’s a credit score to Suzanne Scott and all of her workforce there. They’ve executed an amazing job of constructing this enterprise and operating this enterprise.”
Ms. Scott’s future at Fox Information has been the main focus of some current hypothesis. The defamation swimsuit, filed by Dominion Voting Programs, argues that Fox Information management allowed stars like Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs to air rank falsehoods about rigged voting machines that ruined Dominion’s enterprise. Rupert Murdoch mentioned in a deposition that any of his executives who knowingly allowed lies to be broadcast “ought to be reprimanded, perhaps removed.”
The Murdoch household is loath to make main adjustments at its media properties in response to public rancor, though there have been occasional exceptions; the household closed its Information of the World tabloid following a phone-hacking scandal. Lachlan Murdoch’s remarks on Thursday steered that Ms. Scott’s place was protected, at the least for now. She signed a multiyear contract extension in 2021, shortly after President Biden’s inauguration.
Fox Information v. Dominion Voter Programs
Paperwork from a lawsuit filed by the voting machine maker Dominion towards Fox Information have make clear the controversy contained in the community over false claims associated to the 2020 election.
The paperwork revealed within the Dominion case confirmed Ms. Scott, amongst different executives and a few of the community’s hosts, worrying that conservatives would abandon Fox Information if its protection turned too vital of former President Donald J. Trump and his allies’ baseless claims of rampant voter fraud.
At one level, Ms. Scott privately criticized one of many community’s White Home correspondents for describing a lot of Mr. Trump’s claims as “merely not true” throughout a reside phase. “I can’t maintain defending these reporters who don’t perceive our viewers and the right way to deal with tales,” Ms. Scott wrote in an inside e mail.
Requested at Thursday’s convention to touch upon the Dominion swimsuit, Mr. Murdoch, who’s the chief govt of the Fox Company, once more defended Fox Information from its detractors.
“A information group has an obligation — and it’s an obligation — to report information fulsomely, wholesomely and with out worry or favor, and that’s what Fox Information has all the time executed and that’s what Fox Information will all the time do,” Mr. Murdoch mentioned.
“I feel quite a lot of the noise that you simply hear about this case is definitely not in regards to the legislation and isn’t about journalism and is de facto in regards to the politics,” Mr. Murdoch continued. “And that’s sadly extra reflective of our polarized society that we reside in immediately.”
Mr. Murdoch’s interlocutor on the investor convention, which was sponsored by Morgan Stanley, didn’t press him additional on the topic.
Mr. Murdoch’s personal involvement in Fox Information was additionally captured within the just lately launched paperwork.
He didn’t hesitate to contact Ms. Scott instantly about facets of the channel’s protection, even complaining at one level about an on-air caption alongside the underside of Fox Information’s display that, Mr. Murdoch believed, took a needlessly destructive tone towards Mr. Trump. Mr. Murdoch additionally complained to Ms. Scott {that a} correspondent’s protection of a pro-Trump rally was too vital, calling it “smug and obnoxious.”
In his remarks on Thursday, Mr. Murdoch mused about Fox Information’s broader place within the American information media, arguing that its attraction stretched past its journalistic output and right into a extra cultural realm.
“When you speak to focus teams, with any of our viewers, they see Fox Information as not only a information channel, however a channel that speaks to Center America and respects the values of Center America as a media enterprise that’s most related to them, versus merely a information channel,” Mr. Murdoch mentioned.
