Is Fox News hiding anything in the lawsuit against Dominion?

Fox News' Brain Room has been investigating conspiracy theories claiming that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the presidential election against Donald Trump. This was done in the ten days following the 2020 election.

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There was a clear conclusion reached by the network's research department and fact-checking division that these charges were false. Even so, misinformation still made its way on air.

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As previously reported, details of the Brain Room's fact-check were released on Wednesday in newly released slides from a presentation by Dominion, which the company showed at the pretrial hearing for its $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp. In the slides, there are references to internal communications and testimony that are cited.

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The judge ordered Fox News on Tuesday to release the Brain Room findings, which had been redacted by Fox News.

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A number of Fox executives gave testimony, underscoring the importance of the Brain Room's role in verifying the authenticity of information that is broadcast to the public.

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"It is fair to suggest that following the brain room’s conclusion that the allegations were false, they would not have been aired, would it not?" This was the question a Dominion lawyer asked David Clark, Fox News’ senior vice president for weekend news and programming, during a deposition on October 21.

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“Yes,” Clark replied.

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According to Dominion, it has been severely damaged by the claims put forward by Fox News hosts and guests suggesting that the voting machine manufacturer tipped the 2020 presidential election in favor of Joe Biden by manipulating voting machines.

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"The documents once again demonstrate Dominion's continued reliance on cherry-picked quotes without context in order to generate headlines, while attempting to divert attention from the facts of the case being presented. Freedom of the press -- the first and foremost constitutional right of every American citizen -- is at stake here, and we will continue to make sure that the First Amendment is protected so that news organizations can cover the news due to their responsibility to do so," according to a Fox spokesperson.

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As a result of the Dominion presentation, here are some additional findings:

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'Pretty much a crime' according to Rupert Murdoch, the claims Trump made regarding the election were slanderous

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Murdoch expressed his shock over Trump's insistence that the election was stolen from him through an email he sent to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on January 20, 2021.

"The fact that Trump insisted that the election was stolen and convinced 25% of Americans of the same, was a huge disservice to the country. It was pretty much a crime. It was inevitable it would blow up on the 6th of January," he wrote.

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"Perhaps it is best if we don't mention his name unless absolutely necessary, and we certainly should not support him."

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Fox News CEO said that fact-checking of election claims is 'bad for business'

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The executive vice president of prime-time programming of Fox News, Meade Cooper, received an email from Scott on Dec. 2, 2020, in which he complained that Eric Shawn, who is a Fox News anchor, had fact-checked Trump's voter fraud claims. According to Scott, she was worried that it would alienate viewers from the show.  

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There has to be an end to this right now," Scott wrote in his letter. "We are just feeding them materially and they are furious because of what we are doing to them. This is bad for business."  

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Fox News originally redacted the email before it was released publicly on Wednesday.

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There was no opposition to fact-checking as a whole, according to a Fox News spokesperson on Wednesday. "Basically, this is not a matter of fact-checking - what's at issue here is one host calling out another," the spokesperson said.

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There is also a slide that illustrates a previously redacted text exchange between Fox News President Jay Wallace and host Bret Baier, in which Baier asks Wallace on Nov. 5, "How is that okay with you?" It appears that none of that is true from what we can tell.

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"I think we need to do some fact-checking on this crap. We would be able to benefit from it," Wallace replied.

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'We have to go to a full on war'

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Maria Bartiromo wrote her producer a frantic email the day before she put Sidney Powell on the air in a lengthy interview focusing on election conspiracy theories, the day before she will be interviewing Powell live.

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"We have to declare a complete war on them. They have abused all systems in order to defraud us," she wrote in her letter. "The country has to survive. We have to keep this president. There is no way that anyone can believe that people voted for Biden in the first place."

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There were fragments of her claims in which she claimed that the fraud was "sophisticated" and that the Dominion voting machines "added on thousands of votes."

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"The evidence- yes, we have it," she said as she pointed out that there were photos of a man sticking thumb drives into voting machines.

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"Nancy Pelosi has a strong interest in it, as it's also directed by Soros," she added.