Fox News remains embroiled in controversy after text messages revealing top network officials — from hosts to executives, and chairman Rupert Murdoch — behind the scenes knew the claims it perpetuated from the Trump campaign around the 2020 election were false.
However, a leading media and leadership analyst now claims the network needs to remove some of the executives that have proven to push false narratives.
Senior Associate Dean for Leadership Studies at the Yale School of Management Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld told CNN’s Oliver Darcy that the Fox Corp. board should consider removing top executives, including CEO Suzanne Scott, to avoid the risk of potential litigation from shareholders.
“The board has a duty to remove such officials for proven misconduct,” Sonnenfeld said, adding that it was “acknowledged in the company’s own sworn testimony” that leaders of the company damaged the network’s credibility by their actions.
“If the board does not act appropriately,” continued Sonnenfeld, “it shows a failure of management oversight and jeopardizes their own directors and officers insurance protection with such gross conscious failure of diligent management oversight.”
The Yale Professor added that Murdoch owns 39% of the company, so any of the other shareholders can sue the organization “for misconduct, failure of management oversight, and conscious inadequate diligence”.
During recent findings in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News, it was revealed the Fox Corp. board member Paul Ryan begged network officials to “move on from Donald Trump” and “stop spouting election lies”. Sonnenfeld argued, however, that Ryan — along with other network officials — were guilty of “complicity through complacency”.
