Suzanne Scott, the chief executive of Fox News, told staff that checking facts was bad for business.
In one instance, Scott emailed Meade Cooper, executive vice president of prime time programming, and expressed frustration after correspondent Eric Shawn appeared on Martha MacCallum's show and fact-checked Trump and a Sean Hannity guest.
"This has to stop now," Scott said in a December 2, 2020, message.
"This is bad for business and there is a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows," Scott added. "The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business."
Not only aware of the falsehoods but intentionally promoting them, all the way to the top.
Scott was the executive who smoothed over over sexual harassment claims at the company, and she got the top job after mopping up what Roger Ailes left behind.
Scott herself is mired in the many harassment claims. Staff were apparently aghast when she was promoted last year, as she had been the executive tasked with enforcing Ailes's miniskirt dress code for women. One anonymous former staff member told the Daily Beast how Scott would enforce a "skimpy" dress code in coordination with the wardrobe and makeup departments.
Scott is also cited in lawsuits brought by the former Fox News staffers Andrea Tantaros and Julie Roginsky, as one of the executives at the company who either did not respond to or covered up their complaints of harassment.
And then there's this:
Rupert Murdoch, the Fox Corporation chairman, called Donald Trump's election lies that incited the January 6 attack on the US Capitol "pretty much a crime," according to an email that became public Wednesday. The email had previously been redacted in earlier court filings.
The funny part is that Rupert Murdoch has no idea if it's actually a crime or not, but he assumed it was even as his company promoted and repeated the "crime" in question.
