The Dominion lawsuit’s noise, according to Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, “is not about the law”
“We’ll all be waiting” for the trial to begin in April, Murdoch added.
Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of Fox Corp., commented on both the lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems is suing his company for as well as the barrage of media coverage his company has received as a result of document releases in recent weeks.
When questioned about the lawsuit at a Morgan Stanley conference, Murdoch reaffirmed that the trial will still start in April. “We’ll all be waiting for that,” he said.
But he also went into detail about how the case has been covered by almost all major news sources, resulting in segments on CNN and MSNBC. Depositions, texts, and emails from Murdoch, his father Rupert Murdoch, and other Fox News executives and personalities have been used as headline material and have revealed some information about the organization’s inner workings of the cable news channel.
“I think a lot of the noise that you hear about this case, is actually not about the law,” Murdoch said. “And it’s not about journalism. It’s really about the politics, right, and that’s unfortunate, more reflective of that sort of polarized society that we live in today.”
“A news organization has an obligation — and it is an obligation — to report news fulsomely, wholesomely, and without fear or favor, and that’s what Fox News has always done,” Murdoch said. “And that’s what Fox News will always do.”
Murdoch went into further detail about the Fox News name and the market environment.
Focus groups of Fox News viewers revealed that they “see Fox News as not just a news channel, but really a channel that speaks to sort of middle America and respects the values of middle America,” according to Murdoch. He continued, “a business that is most relevant to them as opposed to simply a news channel.”
He hypothesises that one reason CNN and MSNBC haven’t been able to overtake Fox in the ratings is because of that devoted audience. The “great owner” and “terrific management team” of CNN were also praised by him.
CNN has “deep pockets,” but he claimed that it is difficult for them to gain traction. “This is a hard business to run.”
But he did praise one of his own executives: Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, who has been at the center of the Dominion case.
“The position on the channel is very strong and doing very well. And it’s a credit to Suzanne Scott and all of her her team there, and they’ve done a tremendous job at running this business and building this business,” he said.