The fallout of text messages revealing Fox News hosts and executives never believed the 2020 President Election had been “stolen” continues, with former newsman Dan Rather criticizing the network.
In a post to his Substack, Rather criticized the network for its continuation of what eventually became known as “the big lie”, when behind-the-scenes messages show its hosts believed the comments from Trump and his team to be complete fabrications.
“Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane,” Tucker Carlson is alleged to have said in a text message to Laura Ingraham, who responded that Powell “is a complete nut”, saying “no one will work with her” and that the same went for Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
“What Fox News is alleged to have done (and the evidence is pretty damning), deserves to be front-page news,” said Rather. “And we might be getting only a glimpse of what’s to come. Much of the released filing was redacted. And Fox News sure hopes it remains hidden.”
Rather then added that Fox News simply delivering the news its audience wanted to hear — rather than the truth — out of fear viewers would move to Newsmax or OAN “should not be normalized or accepted”.
“News organizations worthy of the name believe the stories they distribute. Their reporters believe what they report. Their writers believe what they write. And their anchors believe what they say on the air,” Rather said. “These Fox News personalities and the corporation that pays them were not trying to do any of this. Their programs became echo chambers for egregiousness. They knew truth, and they knew fiction. And they deliberately peddled falsehoods.”
