The last election cost $787 million. How Will a Chastened Fox News Cover 2024?

Four years ago, Fox News’ coverage of the 2020 election drew outrage from then-Pres. of Donald Trump campaign, an exodus of viewers angry that they named the key state of Arizona for the current president Joe Bidenand a pair of multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuits from voting technology companies that have been the subject of conspiracy theories surrounding the election.

This year, the network implemented measures to try to avoid the mistakes of the past. The result, according to people we spoke to inside the network and in the industry, will be a quieter, more cautious Fox.

As the country prepares for what promises to be another wild Tuesday sprint to the inauguration, Fox News is under the microscope as every facet of how it covers the biggest night in news will be scrutinized. For an idea of ​​what’s in store, it’s worth going back to 2020.

The start of the trouble for Fox was on election night itself, when Trump told supporters around 2:30 a.m., despite millions of ballots still being counted, that he had won. The rest is well-worn history. The network’s early but ultimately accurate Arizona call for Biden set off a firestorm. Trump campaign staffers furiously called Fox executives. Viewers chanted “Fox News sucks” outside its sets and fled in droves to alternative networks like Newsmax.

As demonstrated in the evidence that has poured out of the Dominion lawsuit, the network’s management knew that Trump’s claims of a fraudulent election were false. In those early days, they took steps not to broadcast these claims. Rupert Murdoch instructed the Fox CEO Suzanne Scott to keep an eye on Fox’s pro-Trump prime time to make sure they didn’t whitewash Trump’s “sore loser” claims.

Network suddenly canceled of Jeanine Pirro November 7 shows fear it would promote claims of fraud. “They took her because she was crazy” from Tucker Carlson the producer said privately at the time. “The optics are bad. But she’s crazy.”

Then Fox News called the race for Biden. The viewer fury that started with the early call in Arizona on election night has gotten out of hand. Ratings plummeted as top executives and stars began to panic, fueling a dynamic that allowed even crazy conspiracy theories about the election to take off.

Dominion executives sent numerous emails to Fox management explaining how the claims were false and asking them to end the smears. However, figures like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell continued to appear in the air.

Dominion’s appeals were unsuccessful, as Fox News employees were likely overwhelmed by the executives’ more frantic talk about audience compliance, a refrain that has become infamous by now. Respecting the audience, what Fox News wanted to say was to tell viewers that stolen election claims it knew to be false might actually be true.

“It’s remarkable how bad ratings make journalists do bad things,” he said Bill Sammon. It’s been weeks since Election Day 2020 and Trump is still insisting, without any evidence, that the election was stolen from him by the Democrats. Sammon, the network’s longtime Washington editor, privately bemoaned the way those lies appeared on the air night after night. Weeks later, Murdoch told management to fire Sammon and his political editor Chris Stirewaltwho defended the Arizona appeal. The chief said privately that the scalp would be “a big message to Trump’s people.”

Respecting the audience also meant keeping an eye on hosts who spoke out against the claims. On November 9, anchor Neil Cavuto interrupted a press conference from the then White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnanytelling his audience: “Wow, whoa, whoa… She’s accusing the other side of condoning fraud and condoning illegal voting, unless she has more details to back that up, I can’t keep showing that.”

At the time, Cavuto’s comment, while true, was flagged internally as a “brand threat.” Months later, Fox hired McEnany as host.

In another case, Fox anchors Eric Shawn provided accurate verification of false claims of fraud that were aired on another show. Shawn’s segment prompted a rebuke from management, who deemed the infighting “bad business”.

What would end up being worse for business than the fact-checkers was the Dominion lawsuit, which accused Fox of broadcasting false claims about the company in an effort to support Trump’s claims that the election was rigged, and ended up costing Fox News a $787.5 million settlement. the largest known payment for a media outlet accused of defamation in history. They still face a defamation lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company that has been the subject of similar conspiracy theories.

Fox News quickly recovered as a business. Viewers who fled during the chaos of 2020 are back. As head of Fox Corp Lachlan Murdoch praised on a recent earnings call, the network dominated this election. It continues to be the most-watched network in all of cable news and the second-most-watched in all of television, behind only NBC, which aired the Summer Olympics.

Now, the network is taking steps to ensure their coverage doesn’t fall into the same traps that snared them last time.

This year, as in 2020, election night coverage will be led by veteran news anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallumwho will be joined by a team of reporters and analysts from the network’s news division, as well as several top opinion hosts, including Sean Hannity, Jesse Watters and Laura Ingraham.

The network also has the task Eric Shawn – the anchor who sparked domestic panic by fact-checking false voting claims in 2020 – with his handling of “election integrity issues”.

“They’re going to play it really straight and very low-key,” one former Fox News veteran predicted.

There is also little appetite in the TV news industry to call a close race first, as Fox News did with Arizona four years ago, sparking viewer revolt. One industry insider said few, if any, networks will be aggressive in calling states given how close the race will be and how high the stakes are for any outlet that gets it wrong.

Arnon Mishkinwho heads the Fox News decision desk, was asked in a recent interview with Political whether he felt any pressure to be first in calling states. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I think there’s a distinct pressure to be right — or rather, not to be wrong.”

“Aggressively calling races is not a priority for the network,” said the former Fox veteran. “All the Trump supporters will be watching them. There is no pressure on ratings. So they don’t have to be the first. It doesn’t have to be anything. All it has to do is be in the air.”

In addition, the network says it has taken steps to avoid anchors being rushed by major calls, as happened with Arizona in 2020, when Bill Hemmer and Baier were surprised to see the state turn blue while live.

“One of the guys on the air was talking and saying, ‘Wait a minute, did I just call Arizona or something?'” Mishkin said. Financial Times last week. “We’ve taken steps to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

As for the possibility — or likelihood — of Trump alleging fraud, Fox employees are privately wary that promoting such claims will get them into trouble.

According to a new report by from the Washington Post Jeremy BarrFox employees attended a mandatory course throughout the fall on defamation law, as well as “the importance of fact-checking, rejecting potentially defamatory comments, and always calling companies and individuals for comment.”

“It was very, very clear that they don’t want a repeat of November 2020,” said a journalist who attended the course. Post.

In recent weeks, some hosts have verified Trump’s claims. Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner delivered to carefully worded answer to the former president who called the 2020 election “stolen” in remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort.

“In the beginning, you heard the former president talking about a stolen election,” Faulkner said. “And while it may feel a certain way, the facts remain Joe Biden was declared the winner with 51 percent of the vote.”

Earlier this year, Cavuto pulled back from a Trump speech that touched on 2020 to say, “He still lost that election. That is no longer in doubt. This is no longer up for debate.” And Baier told Trump directly in a difficult interview last year: “You’ve lost the 2020 election.”

That doesn’t mean the network will avoid conspiracy theories entirely. For some Fox insiders, alluding to vague election claims is apparently seen as a matter of self-preservation.

The sweet spot pleases the faction of your audience that calls for election denial, but avoids defaming any person or company. Host of Fox News Greg Gutfeld already has alleged the race is “over” and baselessly suggested “the integrity of the election is still in question.”

Maria Bartiromo recent quote Gateway Pundit, a far-right fake news site, to promote a conspiracy theory about an “election integrity problem” in Arizona.

This week, those companies that were victims of election lies will follow. Smartmatic said in a statement that it had “prepared to closely monitor coverage of the US election” and had “sent a letter to media outlets providing direct contact information to facilitate any need for fact-checking or validation” as well as published “a letter dedicated to the fact-checking page on our website to provide accurate and easily accessible information about our company and election technology.”

“We hope that media outlets and public figures – including influencers, politicians and others – have come to recognize the profound societal costs of misinformation and its corrosive impact on public trust in democratic institutions,” said a Smartmatic spokesperson. “Our commitment to transparency and accuracy remains steadfast, and we strongly encourage responsible reporting to support and strengthen democracy.”

Dominion said it, too, is “closely monitoring the claims surrounding the 2024 election. We remain fully prepared to defend our company and our customers against falsehoods and hold accountable those who spread them.”

Whether or not Fox News takes a more responsible stance this year, I can’t help but wonder: Has the damage already been done?

I voted early this year. After I filled out my paper ballot by hand, I put it in a machine (“You can put it in any way,” said the clerk at the polls, but sternly) and approached the church -polling station to wait for a friend to finish his civic duty.

There, I started talking to a mild-mannered poll inspector wearing a silk tie emblazoned with horse jockeys, who told me he was a Republican.

We started talking about the voting machines. I said I was impressed with the technology that allowed you to draw your report any way you wanted. I noticed “Dominion” emblazoned on the side of one of the sleek black boxes. The inspector frowned. He said he has heard rumors that Dominion machines have been used to steal elections for decades and said he hopes they will be banned from American elections. I told him that as far as I knew those claims had been extensively investigated and found to be untrue. He was not convinced.

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