Rupert Murdoch testified that Fox News hosts lied about the 2020 election. Here's why it wasn't a misstep.

• Rupert Murdoch admitted Fox News hosts endorsed falsehoods about the 2020 election.
• Murdoch chairs Fox Corporation, which argues it isn't responsible for claims made on subsidiary Fox News.
• Dominion Voting Systems is suing both Fox News and Fox Corporation for defamation.

Rupert Murdoch said in a deposition excerpt made public last week that hosts on Fox News endorsed the "false notion of a stolen election."

He seemed almost happy to admit it.

A number of media outlets treated Murdoch's deposition as a "gotcha" moment. Here was the chair of Fox Corporation, a 91-year-old mogul atop a conservative media empire, admitting to lies that damaged democracy.

His comments came out as part of a lawsuit between Dominion Voting Systems and Fox. Dominion is suing Fox Corporation and Fox News Network, arguing they defamed the election technology company by allowing then-President Donald Trump's lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell to spread conspiracy theories on air.

When asked by Dominion's lawyers in a January deposition whether he thought Fox hosts were truthful about the election, Murdoch was candid.

Asked if Lou Dobbs — whose show was canceled on Fox Business Network after Trump left office — lied, Murdoch answered: "Oh, a lot."

Asked about host Maria Bartiromo, Murdoch said: "Yes. C'mon."

But in Murdoch's view, none of that matters. He doesn't think Fox Corporation should have anything to do with the defamation lawsuit.

Fox Corporation says it had nothing to do with what hosts said on Fox News

Fox News Network is the corporate entity that broadcasts Fox News and Fox Business News, where Dominion alleges hosts spread lies about its election technology.

Murdoch is the chair of Fox Corporation, the parent corporate entity of Fox News. Fox Corporation also manages subsidiaries like Fox Sports, a large number of local TV stations, TMZ, Tubi, and a blockchain company. Rupert's son Lachlan Murdoch is the CEO of the Fox Corporation.

In Fox Corporation's view, it doesn't matter what Rupert Murdoch does or doesn't think about what goes on at Fox News, because he doesn't exercise granular editorial control at Fox News. Fox Corporation shouldn't be involved in Dominion's lawsuit at all, the company argues.

Under ordinary corporate law and Supreme Court precedent stemming from New York Times v. Sullivan — the granddaddy of libel law in the US — a parent company isn't automatically liable for the companies underneath it.

"The assumption has always been that it has to be the creator of the story who must know that it is false in order to support a judgment under the Sullivan standard," Frederick Schauer, a First Amendment scholar and a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, told Insider.

To win its case against Fox Corporation, Dominion must prove the Murdochs were directly involved in the allegedly defamatory statements. Murdoch's "personal beliefs about those statements are irrelevant" if he didn't exercise editorial control at Fox News in the first place, according to Clay Calvert, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida and First Amendment scholar.

"Neither Rupert nor Lachlan Murdoch nor anyone else at Fox Corporation played any role whatsoever in creating or publishing any of the statements Dominion challenges," lawyers for Fox Corporation wrote in a filing made public last week.

Suing Fox Corporation, and not just Fox News Network, allows Dominion to "go after another pot of money" in its case, according to Calvert.

Individual Fox News hosts who were themselves deposed — Dobbs, Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, Tucker Carlson, and Sean Hannity — all said they didn't talk with the Murdochs about 2020 election conspiracy theories.

"I can say unequivocally that no one at Fox tried to force me to take a specific line on Sidney Powell or any other feature of the 2020 election," Carlson said in his deposition, quoted in Fox Corporation's filing. "I made these judgments independently and I think the record will reflect that because it's true."

"I don't think I've ever met Mr. Dobbs," Murdoch said in a different part of his deposition quoted in the Fox Corporation filing.

That still leaves the question of liability for Fox Corporation's subsidiary, Fox News Network. For its part, Fox News Network says it was simply reporting the news in a way protected by the First Amendment, and that Dominion is taking an "extreme, unsupported view of defamation law," the company said in a statement.

Dominion argues the Murdochs did control editorial decisions at Fox News

In filings, Dominion has argued that Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are intimately involved in editorial decisions in Fox News and should be liable for what happens on the network.

The Murdochs often used Scott as a proxy to carry out their orders, Dominion alleged in court filings last month. As Fox News ratings slipped when the network announced Biden won Arizona's electoral college votes, Rupert Murdoch talked about how to adjust messaging on the channel, according to records obtained by Dominion.

He also told Scott to "watch Sean especially" and make sure Hannity didn't support Trump's lie that he was the true winner of the presidential election.

Around the time of the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, Murdoch and Scott discussed whether the network's major hosts should "say some version of 'The election is over and Joe Biden won,'" but decided against it, messages obtained by Dominion show.

The elder Murdoch even appeared to decide to allow Carlson to interview Mike Lindell, another election conspiracy theorist who's being sued by Dominion. Asked why Lindell was on the network, Murdoch said in his deposition: "The man is on every night. Pays us a lot of money."

"It is not red or blue, it is green," Murdoch added.

As for Lachlan Murdoch, Dominion says he was intimately involved in decisions about which guests should or should not be on Fox News, provided suggestions of specific questions to ask guests, and even the tone and length of chyrons and whether they were too "anti-Trump."

Lachlan said in his deposition that he had directed Scott on "specific direction on both the tone and narrative of Fox's news coverage" and that he anticipated she would listen to him. 

"At his deposition, Lachlan could not recall a single instance when FNN did not follow one of his suggestions," Dominion's attorneys wrote in a filing.

Dominion also argues Fox Corporation board members had a role in shaping coverage on Fox News, including former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, former Trump administration communications director Raj Shah, and Patriot Act architect Viet Dinh.

On November 20, Shah communicated with a producer for Carlson's show about whether to address an affidavit Sidney Powell was offering as proof of fraud, according to communications Dominion obtained.

"Might wanna address this, but this stuff is so fucking insane," Shah said in a text message to one of Tucker Carlson's producers. "Vote rigging to the tune of millions? C'mon."

"It's totally insane….," he said in another message a day later, as cited in Dominion's filing. "This is an op to discredit her, since It's just MIND BLOWINGLY NUTS."