In March 2021, the computer company Dominion Voting Systems, which makes hardware and software for electronic voting, sued the conservative television network Fox News for libel: it sought $1.6 billion in damages over repeated false allegations that it participated in electoral fraud to favor Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, against Donald Trump. In recent weeks, the documents collected by the prosecution have been made public. Dominion must prove not only the falsehood of the theories presented on the air by Fox News, but also the “bad faith” of the television network: to do so, he is using private conversations and chats between journalists and executives of Fox News as evidence.
Those dialogues are clarifying that the top exponents of the television network were aware of the falsehood of the accusations of the Republicans closest to former President Donald Trump, to whom they also gave space and credit on the air. But they are also revealing very different judgments about Trump than those expressed in public.
In particular, sentences and comments by Tucker Carlson, one of the best known, most discussed and fiercest presenters of the network, are particularly surprising. Carlson has publicly been a staunch defender of Trump in every decision or statement and has long been considered an inspirer of his policies. In private conversations made public during the trial, however, he expresses extremely critical judgments on the former president. In one of these he says: “I hate him with all my heart” (“I hate him passionately”).
The trial will be held in April, but regardless of its outcome, the effects of the Dominion lawsuit will be heavy for Fox News, a television network owned by Rupert Murdoch and very influential in the US right-wing political landscape.
Fox News has been instrumental in Donald Trump’s political rise and has been repeatedly accused of giving space to fake news and conspiracy theories. After the 2020 presidential elections he also supported the false theory of “stolen elections”, very popular in the most extreme components of the Republican party, re-launching the allegations of fraud. Rupert Murdoch, founder and owner of the network, recently admitted that the network did it knowing that there was “no truth to it”.
Tucker Carlson in the Fox News studios (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
Tucker Carlson is one of the most recognized faces of the network, he has his own daily show in one of the timeslots with the widest audience: he has extremely radical positions, he has long been referred to as the most faithful “representation of Trumpism”, he has often introduced televised debate “mainstream” visions of white supremacism or conspiracy theories that were previously relegated to social networks or far-right sites. He is also famous for very violent, often incorrect attacks on political opponents.
Carlson in recent years has often publicly called Donald Trump “the best president ever” and has also defended the most radical positions. In private, however, his judgments were very different, as was made clear by the publication of some text chats with several colleagues, considered fundamental by the Dominion company to demonstrate that Fox News and its journalists supported false theories on electronic voting because they were aware of their falsehood.
In November 2020, commenting on former President Trump’s entrepreneurial skills, Carlson wrote: «All of his companies fail. What it’s really good at is destroying things. He is the world champion, by detachment, in this ». In the same month, he called Trump’s decision not to attend the inaugural day of the Biden presidency, a ceremony considered a symbol of the peaceful transfer of power, “disgusting”.
A few days before the assault of Trumpian supporters on the American Congress on January 6, 2021, Carlson wrote: «We are very very close to the moment in which we will be able to ignore Trump most of the evenings. I’m really looking forward to it. I hate it with all my heart.” And then again, a few days later, two weeks after Biden took office: «When he is out, he will lose power incalculably, even in the eyes of his supporters. He is a demonic force, a destroyer. But he will not destroy us. I’ve been thinking about this every day for the past four years.”
The documents also reveal a judgment on Trump’s four years of presidency similar to that of many Democrats and diametrically opposed to the one proposed on the air: «We are all pretending that there are positive sides, because admitting the disaster that has been would be too much hard to digest. But let’s face it, there is no silver lining in Trump.”
Carlson has so far ignored the public dissemination of his judgments on Trump and in the last episodes of his program has instead aired new video material on the assault on Congress on January 6, supporting the thesis that it was a “peaceful chaos”.
