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Fox News reported on many of the allegations about the 2020 election.
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The conservative network settled a defamation suit with a voting machine company for some of the election reports.
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A former Fox employee is suing the network for wrongful termination.
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The employee claims he was fired because he refused to lie.
(NewsReady.com) – Fox News was one of the first networks to call the 2020 presidential race for Joe Biden. The decision infuriated supporters of former President Donald Trump. In the weeks that followed, leading to the January certification of the election, hosts on the network reported allegations that the race had been stolen from the 45th president.
Internal company communications, published during the Dominion Voting Systems suit against the network, showed many hosts knew Biden won the race but didn’t want to anger their audience. A former employee is now suing the network, alleging he was let go because he refused to report lies.
Lawsuit Against Fox
Jason Donner worked for Fox News for 12 years. In September 2022, he was working as a Capitol Hill producer when the company fired him. In a new lawsuit filed in federal court, the congressional staffer alleges he was terminated in a purge of journalists who refused to “get in line with the directive to only report information” that Trump and his supporters wanted to hear.
Donner filed the suit in September in Washington, DC’s Superior Court, but on November 13, the case moved to federal court. According to the lawsuit, the former Fox employee cites text messages from the Dominion suit. One of the texts was from CEO Suzanne Scott, where she was concerned about backlash from Trump supporters. She said the network had to change its coverage and start reporting that the election was stolen to prove to the viewers that they “hear them and respect them.”
In 2020, after the election, Donner claims he started being pressured by his bosses over his reporting about the race. One day, he posted a tweet accusing Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, of making statements that seemed inconsistent about the election.
At this presser, Rudy Giuliani keeps claiming voter fraud in Philadelphia, but he said this to a Pennsylvania court: “This is not a fraud case.”
— Jason Donner (@jason_donner) November 19, 2020
Donner says his supervisors reprimanded him for the tweet.
January 6
Donner alleges the trouble really began on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill to try to prevent Congress from certifying the election. He was in the building as rioters broke in and said he was “stunned” to see his colleagues reporting it as a “peaceful” demonstration. He claims he called the Fox News control room and told them they were going to get them all killed because they were allegedly downplaying the violence.
After that day, Donner claims the network continued inviting election deniers to come on and didn’t push back when they made claims about fraud. In October 2021, former host Tucker Carlson aired a series called “Patriot Purge” that painted the riot participants in a favorable light. The producer said he complained about the series, but nobody did anything. He claims that the complaint led to his firing.
Donner is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, interest, equitable relief, and attorney’s fees.
Copyright 2023, NewsReady.com
