Listen to Angelo Carusone explain the bombshell Dominion filing that proves Fox News knew it was pushing lies
Carusone: “It doesn't get more deliberate, intentional and kind of shocking.”
Published
Listen to Angelo Carusone explain the bombshell Dominion filing that proves Fox News knew it was pushing lies
Citation From the February 17, 2023, edition of SiriusXM's The Michelangelo Signorile Show
JOE SUDBAY (GUEST HOST): What was the thing? What was the bombshell or the bombshells that you were like "Holy shit, I did not expect to see this"?
ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): Oh, two things. One, there's a moment where Rupert Murdoch asks for -- asks Fox News' CEO, Suzanne Scott, for "Hey, I'm hearing all this stuff about -- are we making misrepresentations? Are we saying things that are not true about Dominion?" And she comes back with a research document that has 50 examples in it of the company saying -- correcting misinformation. So there's this moment, and this is in real time.
So one, it's like it is -- that was shocking. One, that he asked the question in that way. And two, that he got back a research document that's the kind of stuff that we produce, which is that -- saying "Yeah, here's all the times we said things that were not true about Dominion." And then he didn't do anything about it. He just whined and complained that this was happening. So that was honestly one of the -- I think one of the biggest things was that specific exchange, because it doesn't get any more deliberate, intentional and kind of shocking.
There's other parts about it. There's this other side discussion where some of Fox officials essentially acknowledge that they had no editorial standards. I'm not sure that was like the thing we were all talking about. But it was like, "Wow, they're saying it out loud that they literally have no editorial standards" -- like that was part of their defense. Like "Well, we don't have any editorial standards." That was one of the big things that really stuck out was that particular exchange between Rupert Murdoch and Suzanne Scott. I mean, it's just, it's stunning.
SUDBAY: Yeah, that was, that was a big one. She had it available. And that's like, well, it's part of the record now. Thank you, Suzanne Scott, for providing that to Rupert Murdoch and the Dominion lawyers.
CARUSONE: Right? They fact checked themselves. And then, that's the other thing is that, you know, they -- the part about this, when you look at that one moment too, is that there's actually instances where Fox News executives were admonishing and punishing individual Fox people that were trying to fact check the lies that other Fox News people were saying about Dominion while simultaneously, at the same time, asking for reports about all the misinformation so that they could gripe about it amongst themselves.
They were retaliating against Fox employees that were trying to make -- to stop the fabrications while also asking for them and acknowledging that they were fabrications. I mean, it's just, it really was -- that's it. I feel like that, of all the things, it's probably the only page I think you really need to read because it's open and shut after that, I feel.
SUDBAY: Yeah, it really is.