The conservative news channel topped ratings again in February — and all its hosts have to do to keep it that way is avoid the subject, experts tell TheWrap
News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch’s deposition in the Dominion Voting Systems case may have been a “fatal blow” to Fox’s legal position as the $1.6 billion defamation case nears trial, but Fox News’ viewership should stay intact as long as its popular hosts just find other things to talk about, lawyers and crisis PR experts told TheWrap.
Fox News’ alleged journalistic misdeeds in covering the 2020 election might seem like a broken record at this point, but its loyal fans are the ones skipping the drama. The channel topped cable news ratings again in February, growing viewership by 7% over January. So how does the channel keep its position after Murdoch’s astounding revelation that business considerations motivated putting election misinformation on the air? The formula is simple: back to the newsroom, but with caution and a lot of damage control.
“The hosts in question should be extremely careful about what they say,” said Evan Nierman, founder and CEO of crisis PR firm Red Banyan. “While it remains to be seen if Dominion has enough to prevail in court, Fox has been hurt in the court of public opinion. My advice would be to strenuously avoid even touching upon the topic of the 2020 presidential election and its integrity.”
Voting technology company Dominion filed its suit against Fox in 2021, saying the company and its networks falsely reported that its machines rigged the 2020 election to go in Joe Biden’s favor, amplifying claims made by President Donald Trump and his proxies.
Fox News hosts and guests “endorsed” the false claims about Dominion even though they knew they weren’t true, Murdoch, the chair of Fox, which he effectively controls through a family trust, revealed in a deposition that surfaced last week. Another filing from Dominion alleged that Fox News’ top talent — including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo — all knew that the “stolen election” narrative was false, were privately horrified that Fox was moving forward with the claims and then proceeded to report them anyway.
“Dominion’s lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny,” Fox told TheWrap in a statement.
Michael Blaha, an entertainment lawyer and First Amendment expert, called Murdoch’s deposition a “fatal blow” to any defense Fox News might have, adding that he doesn’t see the network winning the case if it were to go to trial. There’s no upside to trying to explain it to viewers, he said.
“At this point the cat’s out of the proverbial bag,” Blaha said. “I would just tell them to not speak about this anymore, and just shut it down, not be interviewed and not defend what they said because it’s only going to get worse in my opinion.”
Brittney Dobbins, an entertainment and employment lawyer, said the case and its fallout presented an opportunity for Fox to do an “ethical and legal overhaul on its approach to journalism.” She recommended Fox News “create new reporting standards for the company as a whole.”
Will the charges of reporting fake news turn off Fox’s audience? Nierman says not a chance.
“Fox’s devoted fans aren’t going anywhere,” said Nierman. “Fox has a loyal base of viewers, and I don’t expect a large number of them to decamp because of this lawsuit. Fox should be concerned with the financial implications of settling this matter or losing at trial, and is probably more worried about their current audience moving to outlets further to the right.”
Toni Long, founder of the Long Law Group, disagreed. “There’s also a portion of Fox’s audience that honestly believes that they’re being told the truth,” she said. “There are certain members of the Fox community who will fall away and won’t follow them anymore.”
But that assumes the case breaks through to Fox News viewers.
“I think if you’re a Tucker Carlson viewer — No. 1, Fox is not covering this,” Blaha said. “If you are a dedicated Fox News viewer, you probably don’t even know about this. If you do, it certainly has been spun in some different direction. I think most people feel that they will be able to survive and move on. If they’ve lost viewers already, they’re not going to lose more because of this.”
To the extent that viewers hear about the case and understand it involved claims about the 2020 presidential election, they may be inclined to side with Fox. A 2021 poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 82% of Fox News viewers believed the false theory that the election was stolen.
“Mr. Trump famously said he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and get away with it, and his supporters and I think there’s something like that with Fox and these guys,” said Blaha.
Raquel "Rocky" Harris