Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) sent a letter to Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch and Fox News executives on Wednesday calling on them to own up to recent evidence that the network knowingly spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and to admit “they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.”
In the two page letter, the Democratic leaders demanded that Fox executives stop their channel’s hosts from spreading lies about a stolen election, warning they could lead to “further acts of political violence.”
“As noted in your deposition released yesterday Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and other Fox News personalities knowingly, repeatedly, and dangerously endorsed and promoted the Big Lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote. “We demand that you direct Tucker Carlson and other hosts on your network to stop spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.”
The letter comes days after Murdoch’s deposition in Dominion Voting Systems′ defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp and its TV networks. In it, Murdoch acknowledged that despite previous claims that the network remained neutral in its coverage of the Big Lie conspiracy theories, some of Fox’s top TV hosts actually endorsed false election fraud claims.
“Some of our commentators were endorsing it,” Murdoch said in his deposition referring to false election fraud claims. “They endorsed.”
Schumer and Jeffries pointed to Murdoch’s acknowledgement of the issue, saying despite the fact that Murdoch himself has characterized former President Trump’s claims that the election was stolen as “dangerous” and “really crazy stuff,” he still allowed Fox News hosts to continue “to peddle election denialism to the American people.”
“Though you have acknowledged your regret in allowing this grave propaganda to take place, your network hosts continue to promote, spew, and perpetuate election conspiracy theories to this day,” they wrote. “This sets a dangerous precedent that ignores basic journalistic fact-checking principles and public accountability.”
Jeffries addressed the letter in a press conference on Tuesday.
“The letter speaks for itself,” Jeffries said. “Donald Trump perpetuated a big lie to the American people…Perhaps it’s time for America to be able to move past that big lie, and an important step would be those who know it was a big lie, to publicly repudiate it.”
Read the letter here:
