As a mountain of evidence behind Fox News’ decision-making becomes public in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against the network, speculation has flared

about

who could take the fall.

Fox Corp. Executive Chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch tried it

public

quell the chatter Thursday by praising Fox News Chief Executive Suzanne Scott, a target of much of the

theorizing speculation

and dismissing the Dominion case as a politically motivated attack on the company.

“I think a lot of the noise you hear about this case is really not about the law and not about journalism,” Murdoch said at the 2023 Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco. “And it’s really about the politics, which unfortunately is more reflective of this kind of polarized society that we live in today.

dominion

is suing Fox News for

$1.6 trillion

in the event of damage

lawsuit alleging Fox News

the network

has deliberately lied about former President Trump’s 2020 election fraud allegations in order to boost his ratings. Dominion bore the brunt of the falsehoods, with allegations that his machines manipulated votes to favor President Biden and that the company was set up in Venezuela to help Hugo Chvez.

Fox News has

said the cover of

Trump’s claims, even if false, were newsworthy

and that its cover was protected

by the 1st amendment.

Legal experts have said Dominion presents some of the strongest evidence they’ve ever seen in a libel case. Dominion must prove that Fox News acted maliciously by recklessly ignoring the truth when reporting on Trump’s claims

and the

in return for

dominion

the Denver-based maker of voting machines.

The case will be heard in a Delaware court in mid-April.

While Lachlan Murdoch was not directly asked about Scott’s status, he praised her twice at the Morgan Stanley event when he spoke of Fox News’ overall performance, which is a dominating no. 1 in the ratings of cable news.

“It’s an honor for Suzanne Scott and her entire team there,” said Murdoch. “They’ve done a great job running the business and building this business. … This is a tough business to run. And I think, you know, Suzanne Scott has done a great job.

Murdoch

‘s comments on the case were the first he spoke publicly about the case for the first time,

after a tsunami of bad publicity that has swept Fox News since the release of witness statements and

other

evidence submitted to the court.

Testimony by Lachlan Murdoch and his father, News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch, with raised eyebrows

she

Both men downplayed their direct involvement in decision-making at Fox News, emphasizing that Scott is in charge of the network.

The revelations immediately sparked speculation from media analysts and

journalists correct stories

that they distanced themselves from Scott.

But Scott has also presented himself as

a manager who does not have, does not have

hands-on involvement in every decision made on the network.

I don’t control what’s on Fox News,” Scott said in her testimony. “I entrust that to the editorial teams and the individuals who make those decisions about what’s in their shows. … I watch everything from 50,000 feet

F

the companies and I don’t get heavily involved in the handling of shows on the network.

Scott didn’t contradict the Murdochs either

‘argument

. She said that while she strongly considers any input she gets from them, they are not forcing any decision regarding the network on her.

Scott, who took over the network in 2018 and is credited with improving company culture in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal that Fox News chief Roger Ailes failed to find. repeats below

Fox News has a history of circling the wagons when the company is under fire.

In 2016, network personalities, including Maria Bartiromo and Martha MacCallum, publicly gathered to

founder of Fox News chief Roger

Ailes when

sexual harassment

allegations first surfaced against him. Ailes was fired when the evidence in an internal investigation became insurmountable.

There was also speculation

early 2020

that Scott’s status was questionable in early 2021 as ratings plummeted in the months following Trump’s election loss. But the Murdochs rewarded her with a new contract, and Fox News regained its dominant competitive position in the cable news market, in part by adding more conservative commentary to its schedule.

Scott has been with Fox News for 26 years, starting as a

N

executive assistant when the network

First

launched in 1996. She rose to the top job at Fox News in 2018 and is credited with improving culture at the company in the wake of the

company

Aile’s harassment scandal

under Ailes

.