CNN's Bakari Sellers: Dominion filings show Fox hosts “get the leeway to say whatever they want to say whether or not it has veracity”
Sellers: Rupert Murdoch has “done a great deal of damage to democracy throughout the world”
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Citation
From the March 1, 2023, edition of Fox News' The Lead With Jake Tapper
JAKE TAPPER (HOST): If MSNBC's chair admitted under oath that their hosts lied to their progressive viewers, just for ratings, about a topic that had caused a deadly riot at the Capitol against a Republican president, what do you think the response would be by Fox or by Republican members of Congress?
BAKARI SELLERS (GUEST): Oh, they would threaten to burn it completely down. I mean, I think that we all know what that response would be. And it's unique that you asked that question, and I think it's a very good question, because we now know that many of the hosts over at Fox News -- the Tucker Carlsons, the Sean Hannitys -- they get the leeway to say whatever they want to say whether or not it has veracity or not.
It's something that I would argue that Jake Tapper doesn't have. It's something I would argue that Joy Reid doesn't have, that you don't have that leeway. And Jake, in your case specifically, you don't have that want to go out there and mislead viewers the way that we now know Fox News hosts and contributors did.
And I think that's a fundamental problem. And I think that -- and Jonah knows Rupert Murdoch better than I. I don't know him at all, he probably doesn't know me from a can of paint. But I would also go a step further and argue that Rupert Murdoch has not only tarnished and damaged his legacy, but he's also done a great deal of damage to democracy throughout the world, or democracies throughout the world, because these lies fundamentally erode what we believe our democracy to be. And the fact that he had his soldiers and lieutenants carrying it out should be a problem.
But no, I don't believe any host at CNN or any host at MSNBC particularly can get away with the same things that Tucker and Sean get away with, particularly with these lies.