Rupert Murdoch said in a January 2021 e-mail to Paul Ryan that Sean Hannity was “disgusted” by Trump.
Murdoch added in his e-mail that Hannity was “scared to lose viewers” regardless of his distaste for Trump.
Murdoch said to Ryan that Hannity additionally wanted a “wake-up name” after the Capitol riot.
Rupert Murdoch said in an e-mail that Fox Information host Sean Hannity was, in personal, “disgusted” by then-President Donald Trump, however was extra involved about holding viewership up.
Segments of emails Murdoch despatched in 2021 have been revealed on Monday in a court filing from Dominion Voting Programs. Considered one of these exchanges was between Murdoch, his son Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corporation, and Paul Ryan, a board member at Fox Corporation, dated January 12, 2021 — six days after the Capitol riot.
In the e-mail alternate, Ryan, a one-time Republican Home speaker, instructed each Murdochs that after the 2020 election, “some excessive share of People” thought the election was stolen from Trump due to the right-wing media.
“Thanks Paul. Wake-up name for Hannity, who has been privately disgusted by Trump for weeks, however was scared to lose viewers,” Rupert Murdoch wrote in response to Ryan. Hannity anchors one of the most-watched shows on Fox News, simply behind “The Five” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
In response, Ryan instructed Murdoch he thought Fox and its hosts ought to attempt to “put down the echoes of falsehood from our facet.”
“I actually hope our contributors, together with Tucker, Laura, and Sean get that and execute,” Ryan said, probably referencing Fox Information hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Hannity.
Murdoch responded that he thought “everybody” was “disgusted” with the falsehoods surrounding voter fraud — significantly after the January 6 riot, per Dominion’s court filing.
Dominion’s court filings have aired personal messages from Fox hosts
Dominion Voting Programs is alleging that Fox defamed it by pushing false claims about the firm’s position in the 2020 election. Dominion is in search of $1.6 billion in damages.
Murdoch individually conceded in his deposition that Fox News hosts did push falsehoods about the 2020 election — however at the identical time denied that Fox Company endorsed these false claims.
Dominion in its court filings has argued, citing reveals and depositions, that Fox Information hosts like Hannity privately disagreed with pro-Trump election conspiracy theorists, however gave them a platform on the channel anyway. Hannity, for one, called the Trump-allied lawyer Rudy Giuliani an “insane person” in a November 2020 textual content message after Giuliani began pushing baseless voter fraud theories, a Dominion filing in February confirmed.
Hannity’s panic behind the scenes in the run-up to and on the day of the Capitol riot can be well-documented. The Home panel investigating the Capitol riot has made public a series of panicked text messages from Hannity. The texts detailed how “worried” Hannity was about what may occur on January 6, 2021, and the way he tried to get Trump to cease the violence at the Capitol because it occurred.
A Fox spokesperson responding to Insider’s queries about Hannity and Ryan accused Dominion of making an attempt to “publicly smear” the firm simply for reporting the information.
A spokesman for Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch instructed Insider that they had no additional response past Fox’s assertion.
A consultant at Trump’s post-presidential press workplace didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark.
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