The highest government at Fox Information was livid one of many community’s reporters was fact-checking Donald Trump’s false claims in regards to the 2020 election, writing in a December 2020 e-mail that it was “dangerous for enterprise”.

Suzanne Scott, the chief government of Fox Information, was responding in early December 2020 to an on-air fact-check by Eric Shawn, one of many community’s anchors. “This has to cease now,” she wrote to Meade Cooper, one other Fox government. “That is dangerous enterprise and there clearly is a lack of awareness [sic] what is going on in these reveals. The viewers is livid and we’re simply feeding them materials. Dangerous for enterprise.”

A Fox Information spokesperson stated Scott’s objection within the e-mail was not about pushing again on election claims. “This isn’t about fact-checking – the problem at hand is one host calling out one other,” the spokesperson stated in an announcement.

Scott additionally requested different Fox staff to alert her if the community booked Mike Pompeo, the previous secretary of state, or Mike Lindell, a serial promoter of election misinformation. “They’d each get rankings,” she stated.

The message is a part of a tranche of inner communications obtained by the voting gear firm Dominion in its $1.6bn defamation lawsuit towards Fox. Dominion displayed a replica of the message a court docket listening to final week as its attorneys argued that Fox knowingly aired false statements about Dominion as a result of it was involved about dropping viewers to rival networks reminiscent of Newsmax and One America Information (OAN). The Guardian obtained a replica of the message and the slideshow that was introduced in court docket.

The Fox spokesperson stated: “These paperwork as soon as once more display Dominion’s continued reliance on cherry-picked quotes with out context to generate headlines with the intention to distract from the details of this case. The foundational proper to a free press is at stake, and we are going to proceed to fiercely advocate for the primary modification in defending the position of reports organizations to cowl the information.”

Weeks earlier, on 19 November, Scott additionally complained a couple of totally different fact-check on air. “I can’t preserve defending these reporters who don’t perceive our viewers and how one can deal with tales,” she wrote.

“The viewers appears like we crapped on [sic] and we now have broken their belief and perception in us,” she wrote, including that Fox nation had misplaced 25,000 subscribers. “We are able to repair this however we can not smirk at our viewers any longer.”

The reporter who did the fact-check, Kristin Fisher, later stated she felt she was punished for telling the reality, NPR reported.

“That is in regards to the tone and supply of the correspondent. It has nothing to do with fact-checking,” a Fox spokesperson stated.

Fox says it was reporting on newsworthy allegations by the previous president and his attorneys, and that its viewers wouldn’t have understood its broadcasts about Dominion to be statements of reality. It additionally says prime executives on the firm and others who expressed concern in regards to the accuracy of its statements about Dominion weren’t immediately concerned in figuring out what went into every present.

Dominion’s slideshow additionally included messages from Fox Information host Maria Bartiromo, whose present was a hotbed for false claims in regards to the election. In a single message, Bartiromo seemed to be conscious that Sidney Powell, considered one of Donald Trump’s attorneys, would come on her present the subsequent day to make specious claims about Dominion software program switching votes, saying: “OK, Sidney will say it tomorrow.” In notes to herself, Bartiromo famous that Powell was being shut out from conferences with Jared Kushner on the White Home as a result of he didn’t wish to hear about “conspiracy theories”.

Dominion additionally revealed a key 13 November 2020 inner fact-check from Fox from a workforce often called the “mind room” that debunked false claims about Dominion. Though executives testified that claims debunked by the mind room shouldn’t have been aired, Fox continued to make false claims about Dominion after the fact-check.

The paperwork additionally present inner concern about statements being made by Jeanine Pirro, one other host who aired false Dominion claims. In a single message, fact-checkers went over a script for considered one of her reveals and highlighted inaccurate statements about Dominion. “The mind room goes via this now. Jeanine dictated it to Tim. It’s rife with conspiracies and BS and yet one more instance of why this girl ought to by no means be on stay tv,” Jerry Andrews, a Fox government, wrote in an e-mail.

Jury choice within the trial is scheduled to start on 13 April in Wilmington, Delaware. The trial is scheduled to start 17 April and final six weeks.