Rupert Murdoch and Fox News’s parent company are facing a lawsuit from progressive activist group Media Matters over claims that they shared campaign strategy from Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential run with Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law.
Fox News hit with lawsuit
The suit has been filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), alleging that Fox News shared Joe Biden’s campaign ad’s before they officially aired on the network.
“Fox’s actions are not only an egregious violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act and the Commission’s regulations but also a nefarious attempt by people in power to operate a press entity as a political organization, in blatant disregard of the rules that govern our elections and democracy,” Media Matters CEO and president Angelo Carusone wrote in the filing, which was reported first by The Hollywood Reporter.
The allegations first came to light last week in a $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox from Dominion Voting System. According to the filing, Murdoch shared information about the Biden campaign’s ads with Kushner. Campaign finance laws prohibit corporations from providing contributions to political candidates.
Furthermore, the lawsuit argues that the FEC should treat private information about campaign strategy, advertising, and messaging as a contribution and that Fox Corporation was “not acting as a press entity when Murdoch provided the Committee with the Biden advertisements.”
Media Matters’ lawsuit emphasizes that the Biden campaign advertisements were not only shared before they had run on air but that further steps were taken to hide any alleged wrongdoing. “What we’re seeing here is a coordinated effort to undermine the fairness and integrity of our elections,” Mr Carusone said.
“Murdoch’s secret conveyance of the Biden advertisement is even less like press activity than a cable casting company sending campaign flyers in its bills – and neither can be protected by the press Exemption,” he continued.
Fox News has faced intense scrutiny lately, with Murdoch claiming that the network hosts endorsed “this false notion of a stolen election.” However, Murdoch went on to say that Fox Corporation itself did not endorse the claims and was merely reporting the news.
As you would expect, Trump weighed in on Murdoch’s comments claiming that there was more than sufficient evidence of election fraud, “How does Rupert Murdoch say there was no election fraud when 2000 Mules shows, on government tape, that there were millions of ‘stuffed ballots,’ & Elon Musk released the FBI/Twitter Files, where pollsters say that the silencing of information made a 17% difference in the Vote”? he wrote on Truth Social.
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