A trio of former Fox executives published a blistering statement expressing their regret in themselves for helping build the corporation in its early days, labeling Fox a “disinformation machine.”
The Wednesday blog post titled, “How Our Efforts to Bring Competition To Television Unknowingly Helped Create the Fox Disinformation Machine” hones in on Fox's coverage of the 2020 election, especially claims by former President Donald Trump that the election was rigged.
“For what little it may, or may not, be worth at this point, Preston Padden, Ken Solomon and Bill Reyner wish to express their deep disappointment for helping to give birth to Fox Broadcasting Company and Fox Television that came to include Fox News Channel — the channel that prominently includes news that, in the words of Sidney Powell's counsel, ‘no reasonable person would believe,'” the three former executives wrote in the blog post.
In the 1990s, Padden served as Fox's top Washington lobbyist, Solomon was the executive vice president of network distribution and Reyner was the lead outside counsel, according to The Hill. The three major broadcast networks at the time were ABC, CBS, and NBC.
The trio also played an integral role in helping Fox grow into the fourth broadcast television network by acquiring more television stations across the country.
“At the time of our work in the 1990's, we all greatly admired Rupert Murdoch and his vision and bold efforts,” they wrote. “We genuinely believed that the creation of a fourth competitive force in broadcast television was in the public interest.”
The former executives also blasted Fox over its historic settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. In April, Fox News agreed to pay a nearly $800 million settlement over the network's coverage of Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the election. (RELATED: Fox News Reaches Last-Minute Settlement With Dominion Voting Systems)
“We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become,” they wrote. “In a 120 page Court Order, backed by extensive record evidence including voluminous emails from inside Fox, the Judge in the Dominion case found that Fox repeatedly presented false news. Fox did not appeal the decision but instead acknowledged it and paid nearly $800 million in damages to Dominion.”
They said that the Fox News Channel “has had many negative impacts on our society,” adding that “the worst has been Fox's role in promoting Trump's ‘Big Lie' about alleged widespread fraud in the 2020 election” and “Fox's role in contributing to the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol that undermined our democracy.”
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How much did these guys get paid for this revelation. Obviously they left fox on their own terms. Common man. !!
MONEY SPEAKS!
Who does Preston work for now?? exactly
Where did Ken Solomon used to work before his prestigious role at Tennis Channel? Go ask the mouse.