Messages sent to Fox News hosts released as part of the lawsuit against the network brought by Dominion Voting Systems paint a picture of what they privately thought about claims of fraud after the 2020 presidential election.
Those private musings were often at odds with what the hosts said in their broadcasts.
Hosts, including Tucker Carlson, expressed serious doubts about the baseless narrative of widespread voter fraud promoted by then-President Donald J. Trump and a coalition of lawyers, lawmakers and influencers, though they offered no evidence to back up their claims.
Two days after the election, Mr Carlson’s producer Alex Pfeiffer said the votes on the right were “reckless demagogues”, according to a text message. Mr Carlson replied that his show “wouldn’t follow them”.
But the same day, on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Mr. Carlson expressed some doubts about the voter fraud claims before insisting that at least some of the claims were “credible.”
On November 7, 2020, Mr. Carlson privately to Mr. Pfeiffer that claims of manipulated software were “absurd”. Mr. Pfeiffer later replied that there was not enough evidence of fraud to tip the election. But during his broadcast on November 9, Mr. Carlson spent time on several theories, suggesting that claims of software manipulation might be well founded. “We don’t know, we have to find out,” he said.
Mr Carlson and other hosts also privately criticized Sidney Powell, a lawyer and conspiracy theorist who was gaining ground among the far right for her involvement in several court cases aimed at challenging the election results. Mr Carlson called her claims “shockingly reckless” while Laura Ingraham, who is the host of a 10pm show, and Raj Shah, a senior vice president at the Fox Corporation, the network’s parent company, were equally incredulous.
Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo, two hosts of Fox Business, a Fox News sister channel that is also part of the Dominion lawsuit, repeatedly invited Ms. Powell to their shows as an expert on voter fraud claims.
John Fawcett, a producer on Mr. Dobbs’ show, said in one post that he believed Ms. Powell was “doing LSD and cocaine and heroin and magic mushrooms”. But when Ms. Powell appeared on Mr. Dobbs’ show days later, she was hailed as a “great American” and “one of the country’s foremost professional lawyers.”
Mr Fawcett also privately told Mr Dobbs that Mr Trump’s legal team disowned her. Mr. Dobbs replied that he did not know what Mrs. Powell “thought or did, or why!”
But over the next few days, Ms. Powell was again invited to the show by Mr. Dobbs, who repeated her claims that “election fraud” was being committed by electronic voting machines, “prominently Dominion.”
