Tucker Carlson Called Donald Trump a 'Demonic Force' While Fox News Executives Refused to Put Trump on Air During January 6
More messages between Fox News stars and executives have surfaced, and it revealed that many in the network were not too fond of former President Donald Trump. This includes host Tucker Carlson, who praised Trump in public, but a new legal filing revealed he called the former president a "demonic force."
This comes as Dominion Voting Systems revealed several messages sent between network executives, as well as their hosts, as part of their $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News. It revealed that while hosts like Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingram, and Sean Hannity peddled the former president's claims of voter fraud, the hosts personally did not really believe these conspiracy theories and privately trashed them.
The lawsuit stated that Fox News knew that what Trump had been saying was "total BS" as new messages between Fox News hosts and executives have now surfaced. This includes an exchange between Tucker Carlson and producer, Alex Pfeiffer, two days after the 2020 presidential elections.
This came after Fox News suffered a huge blow to their ratings, losing viewers to Newsmax after calling Arizona for Joe Biden. Pfeiffer told Carlson that "many on 'our side' are being reckless demagogues right now," with Carlson replying, "We're not going to follow them."
The Fox News host then added that former President Trump was good at "destroying things," and that he could easily destroy them if they play it wrong.
On January 6, Carlson messaged his producer again, calling Trump "a demonic force, a destroyer." Three weeks later, Carlson would have his leading sponsor Mike Lindell on his show. The MyPillow CEO would repeat Donald Trump's conspiracy theories that the elections were stolen.
READ MORE: Tucker Carlson, Other Fox News Stars Privately Blasted Donald Trump's Election Fraud Claims
Fox News Executives Refused to Let Donald Trump on Air During January 6
The Dominion lawsuit alleges that despite their hosts and executives not believing his conspiracy theories, Fox News continued to stick with Donald Trump. However, as January 6 arrived, Fox News flat out refused to let him go on air.
As the Capitol insurrection was going on and pro-Trump rioters were attacking the Capitol, the then-president called Lou Dobbs and tried to get on the show. However, the Dominion legal filing showed that Fox News executives quickly vetoed his appearance.
According to CNN, Fox News chose not to let Trump on Lou Dobbs' show because "it would be irresponsible to put him on the air" and "could impact a lot of people in a negative way." This was confirmed by Fox Business Network President Lauren Petterson, and her testimony was cited by Dominion in their filing.
Fox News Chose Ratings Over Fact-based Journalism, Says Filing
The Fox News Arizona call resulted in a loss of ratings for Fox News, with many Trump supporters turning to Newsmax to hear what they wanted to hear. However, the Dominion filing noted that Fox News found this ratings surge for their rival news network "troubling." Many within Fox News noted that the rival network trafficked in an "alternative universe," but admitted it could not be ignored anymore.
The Dominion filing also showed that some of the network's top executives and stars were not really worried about reporting things factually, as they leaned in more to Trump's debunked claims about the elections as their ratings dipped. Politico noted that Fox News did an about-face to protect its brand.
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This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Rick Martin
WATCH: Hannity admits it: He knew Trump lied as legal earthquake rocks Fox News empire - MSNBC
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