Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch were ‘front and center’ in Fox News’ decision to frame election as stolen, legal filing says

In a recently unsealed filing in the Dominion case, Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that he didn’t stop various Fox News commentators from promoting unfounded claims from Trump allies that the election was stolen, even though he could have. Federal and state election officials, exhaustive reviews in battleground states and Trump’s attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Smartmatic says its technology was used only in Los Angeles County during the 2020 election. Smartmatic claims the Murdochs “participated in, encouraged, played an affirmative role, ratified and were responsible for the broadcasting and dissemination of the defamatory reports,” despite knowing they were false. Rupert Murdoch is Fox Corp.‘s chairman and the news network’s founder; his son Lachlan is Fox Corp.’s chief executive.