An exasperated producer for Laura Ingraham texted a Fox News executive shortly after the 2020 election to say the host was not heeding his warnings that claims of voter fraud were “bs.”
As votes were still being tabulated in the days after the election in November 2020, then-President Donald Trump falsely claimed the contest was being stolen from him. Several Fox News hosts followed suit and also platformed a slew of election deniers. In particular, Dominion Voting Systems came under heavy scrutiny from the network’s talent, who suggested the company’ machines were part of a conspiracy to steal the election from Trump.
Dominion is suing Fox News and seeking $1.6 billion in damages.
A filing by the company on Thursday includes texts from Tommy Firth (pages 29-30), a producer for The Ingraham Angle. Firth tells a Fox News executive that Ingraham insists on pushing “bs”:
By November 12, Dominion became a focal point of discussion within multiple shows at Fox. Spurred by the November 8 Bartiromo broadcast, the wild Dominion allegations entered the mainstream. That day, Ingraham’s producer Tommy Firth texted Ron Mitchell, one of the Fox executives responsible for overseeing Ingraham’s show. Firth bluntly captured the dilemma: “This dominion shit is going to give me a fucking aneurysm–as many times as I’ve told Laura it’s bs, she sees shit posters and trump tweeting about it–[REDACTED] Mitchell responds, “This is the Bill Gates/microchip angle to voter fraud.” Firth replies [REDACTED]. Later in the day, Ron Checks in: “How’s it going [with] the kooks?”
Elsewhere in the filing, texts from Tucker Carlson show the host telling Sean Hannity that Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich should be fired over a fact check of Trump’s election claim.
“Please get her fired,” he texted. Seriously… What the fuck?”
Fox News denies Dominion’s suit has merit.
“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” the network said in a statement.
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