Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch dished out a helping of sarcasm to CNN following the network’s Trump town hall - which saw the former president once again raise the lie that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats.
During the town hall, hosted by CNN moderator Kaitlan Collins, Mr Trump commented that the 2020 election was “rigged” and repeatedly rehashed his lies about the polls.
Following the event, Mr Murdoch - commenting at a MoffettNathanson conference on the defamation settlement Fox News reached with Dominion Voting Systems over voter fraud allegations that were shared on the channel - switched his attention to Mr Trump.
Mr Murdoch said during the town hall the former president had made “a lot of allegations about the 2020 election” on CNN, adding: “And I haven’t seen a lawsuit yet.”
However, CNN’s moderator repeatedly fact-checked Mr Trump during the town hall, whereas Fox News was accused of peddling Mr Trump’s election lies.
Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5m after a number of hosts on Fox News repeated Mr Trump’s election lie. Dominion claimed that Fox News had damaged its reputation after promoting conspiracy theories that suggested its voting machines had switched votes cast for Donald Trump to votes for his opponent Joe Biden.
The false election lie was repeated consistently by Mr Trump his friends and fans, many of whom had a place in the Fox News family, after he lost the election.
“We are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues,” Fox said in a statement following the settlement.
And Mr Murdoch himself suggested viewers, and investors should expect no change in direction from Fox News.
“We made the business decision to resolve this dispute and avoid the acrimony of a divisive trial and multi-year appeal process, a decision clearly in the best interests of the company and its shareholders,” he said.
