Dominion Voting ballot-counting machines are shown at a Torrance County warehouse during election equipment testing with local candidates and partisan officers in Estancia, N.M., on Sept. 29, 2022.Andres Leighton/The Associated Press
In May, 2018, the top Republicans in the U.S. needed help. So they called on the founder of Fox News, Rupert Murdoch.
President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were trying to stop West Virginia Republicans from nominating Don Blankenship, who had been convicted of violating mine safety standards during a lethal accident in one of his coal mines, to challenge the state’s incumbent senator, Democrat Joe Manchin.
“Both Trump and McConnell are appealing for help to beat unelectable former mine owner who served time,” Mr. Murdoch wrote to executives at Fox News, according to court records released this week. “Anything during day helpful, but Sean [Hannity] and Laura [Ingraham] dumping on him hard might save the day.”
Mr. Murdoch’s prodding, revealed in court documents that are part of a defamation lawsuit by a voting systems company, is one example showing how Fox became actively involved in politics instead of simply reporting or offering opinions about it. The revelations pose a challenge to the credibility of the most watched cable news network in the U.S. at the outset of a new election season in which Mr. Trump is again a leading player, having declared his third run for the White House.
Mr. Blankenship, who ended up losing the primary, said in an interview Wednesday that he felt the change right away, with the network’s coverage taking a harsher turn in the final hours before the primary.
“They were very smart about elections – they did their dumping the day before the election, so I had no time to react,” said Mr. Blankenship, who filed a separate, unsuccessful libel suit against Fox.
On Wednesday, the network characterized Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit as a flagrant attack on the First Amendment and said the company had taken statements out of context. According to Fox, that included an acknowledgment by Mr. Murdoch that he shared with Jared Kushner, the head of Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign and the president’s son-in-law, an ad for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign that was to air on his network. Fox said the ad Mr. Murdoch forwarded to Mr. Kushner was already publicly available on YouTube and at least one television station.
“Dominion has been caught red handed again using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” Fox said in a statement.
Fox has long been seen as a power in GOP politics with its large conservative fan base. But thousands of pages of documents released this week in the libel suit filed by Dominion show how the network blurred the line between journalism and party politics. Dominion sued after it became the target of 2020 election conspiracy theories, often promoted on Fox’s airwaves.
Mr. Murdoch also told executives at Fox News to promote the benefits of Mr. Trump’s 2017 tax cut legislation and give extra attention to Republican Senate hopefuls, the documents show. He wanted the network “banging on” Mr. Biden’s low-profile presidential campaign during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
Nicole Hemmer, a Vanderbilt University history professor and author of the book Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s, said revelations in the lawsuit puncture Fox’s long argument that there is a dividing line between its news and opinion sides.
“The real revelation here is how much of a fiction that division is,” Ms. Hemmer said. “Some who know Fox have argued that for a while, but now we have real evidence.”
Ms. Hemmer cited text messages disclosed in the court documents from early November, 2020, sent by Fox’s chief political correspondent, Bret Baier, urging the network’s leaders to retract its correct election-night call that President Joe Biden won Arizona. Mr. Baier advocated for putting Arizona “back in his column,” referring to Mr. Trump.
In the days after the election, as Mr. Trump was making increasingly wild allegations that fraud cost him the White House, Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan Murdoch, who is executive chairman of Fox Corp., texted with Fox News chief executive officer Suzanne Scott in alarm about a Trump rally.
“News guys have to be careful how they cover this rally,” Lachlan Murdoch wrote, according to the legal documents. “So far some of the side comments are slightly anti, and they shouldn’t be. The narrative should be this huge celebration of the president. Etc.”
Some of Fox’s politicking – like star host Sean Hannity’s frequent conversations with Mr. Trump during his presidency – is well known. But court papers show how Rupert Murdoch, the boss, inserted himself in the action, too.
Mr. Murdoch e-mailed Ms. Scott in November, 2017, and urged her to promote Mr. Trump’s tax cut proposal, which had passed the House and was nearing a Senate vote.
“Once they pass this bill we must tell our viewers again and again what they will get,” Mr. Murdoch wrote in the e-mail, included in the court records. “Terrific, I understand, for all under $150k.”
After the first presidential debate in 2020, a “horrified” Mr. Murdoch told Mr. Kushner that Mr. Trump should be more restrained in the next debate. (Trump cancelled that event.)
“That was advice from a friend to a friend,” Mr. Murdoch said in his deposition. “It wasn’t advice from Fox Corporation or in my capacity at Fox.”
“What’s the difference?” asked Dominion’s lawyer, Justin A. Turner.
“You’ve been – keep asking me questions as head of Fox,” Mr. Murdoch said. “It’s a different role being a friend.”
Mr. Murdoch’s e-mail banter with Mr. Kushner led to the exchange of the Biden ad, according to court records. That exchange is now the subject of a complaint from the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America to the Federal Elections Commission, arguing Fox made an illegal contribution to the Trump campaign by giving it information about Mr. Biden’s advertisements. Fox said the sharing of public information can’t be considered a contribution.
Court records show that on Sept. 25, 2020, Mr. Murdoch e-mailed Mr. Kushner that “my people tell me” that Mr. Biden’s ads “are a lot better creatively than yours. Just passing it on.”
The same month, Mr. Murdoch wondered in an e-mail to Col Allan, the former editor of the Murdoch-owned New York Post, “how can anyone vote for Biden?” Mr. Allen responded that Mr. Biden’s “only hope is to stay in his basement and not face serious questions.”
“Just made sure Fox banging on about these issues,” Mr. Murdoch responded, according to court records. “If the audience talks the theme will spread.”
Another prominent politician Mr. Murdoch describes as a “friend” is Mr. McConnell, whose wife, Elaine Chao, then Mr. Trump’s transportation secretary, had served on the Fox board. Mr. Murdoch said he would speak to the Republican Senate leader “three or four times a year.”
In a special 2017 Republican Senate primary in Alabama, Mr. Murdoch said in his deposition, he told his top executives that he, like Mr. McConnell, opposed Roy Moore, a controversial former Alabama chief justice. Mr. Moore ultimately won the party’s nomination but lost the general election after he was credibly accused of sexual misconduct, including pursuing relationships with teenagers when he was in his 30s. Mr. Moore denied the allegations.
Mr. Murdoch, in the deposition, also cited his personal friendship with an unnamed Senate candidate in his suggestion to Ms. Scott that the network gives extra attention to Republicans in close Senate races.
Days before the 2020 election, after Fox business anchor Lou Dobbs was critical of Senator Lindsey Graham, Mr. Murdoch asked Ms. Scott to have Mr. Hannity pump up Mr. Graham, who was facing an extremely well-funded challenge from Democrat Jamie Harrison.
“You probably know about the Lou Dobbs outburst against Lindsay Graham,” Mr. Murdoch wrote on Oct. 27, misspelling the senator’s first name in the copy of the message in the court documents. “Could Sean say something supportive? We can’t lose the Senate if at all possible.”
Ms. Scott replied that Mr. Graham was on Mr. Hannity’s show the previous night “and he got a lot of time.” She added, “I addressed the Dobbs outburst.”
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
