What we learned from the latest Fox News-Dominion case filing

Fox News found itself in an existential crisis after the 2020 election and its executives panicked, according to new documents released in a lawsuit against the network.

A new legal filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its ongoing defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Monday paints a picture of nervous executives trying to shore up ratings while raising concerns about false claims of voter fraud being made by allies of then-President Donald Trump bringing into play the days and weeks leading up to the attack on the Capitol on January 6th – often on the air of the network.

So said Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox Corp., in his affidavit The drop in ratings Fox News experienced after the 2020 election made him lose sleep. A Fox Corporation senior vice president responsible for overseeing criticism of the brand, Raj Shah, warned top executives that Fox News was “underwater” with viewers and told a pollster that after the election was subjected to “heavy fire” from its base, according to an email quoted in the filing.

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, in an email to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, made it clear that the station’s post-election coverage did not “anger” Trump while making some false claims about what is happening be, may not fully believe.

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“Everything is at stake here,” he wrote.

Fox News has defended its coverage, calling Dominion’s lawsuit “baseless.” They said in a statement Monday that Dominion’s arguments represent “an extreme, unsupported view of the defamation law.”

Read carefully what the filing says about these and other allegations in the nearly 200-page document.

Rupert Murdoch’s testimony and concurrent emails suggest he didn’t believe Trump’s stolen election lie

Rupert Murdoch admitted some Fox News anchors “confirmed” Trump’s false cheating allegations on the air

Rupert Murdoch said he spoke to Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell immediately after the election and urged leading Republicans to dismiss Trump’s cheating allegations

Rupert Murdoch worried about angering Trump

Fox News gave Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner early access to Biden’s campaign ads and debate strategy

Fox News executives were concerned about the drop in ratings after the election

Fox Corp. executive in charge of protecting the brand, Raj Shah, called for “decisive action” as polls indicated a drop in favor values

Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that he chose not to pull Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani off the airwaves

Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Fox Corporation board member, repeatedly appealed to the Murdochs to “stop spreading election lies.”

According to an email Rupert Murdoch Ryan sent in January, Fox News host Sean Hannity was “privately disgusted with Trump for weeks” but feared losing viewers

Rupert Murdoch testified that he allowed MyPillow’s Mike Lindell to continue advertising on Fox News for the money

Rupert Murdoch said in an email on January 11, 2021 – in response to concerns raised by another board member following the attack on the Capitol – that Fox News “pivoted as soon as possible”.