Three former high-ranking Fox executives are blasting Rupert Murdoch for Fox News' role spreading disinformation in the public discourse.
In a joint statement published Wednesday, the executives — Preston Padden, Ken Solomon, and Bill Reyner — expressed profound regret for their roles helping Murdoch build Fox in its early days. Padden was Fox's chief Washington lobbyist; Solomon was the vice president of network distribution; and Reyner was the lead outside counsel.
While none of the executives worked on Fox News, the work they did on behalf of Murdoch decades ago established Fox as a national television force and helped pave the way for the birth of the right-wing channel.
"At the time of our work in the 1990's, we all greatly admired Rupert Murdoch and his vision and bold efforts," the trio said in their statement. "We genuinely believed that the creation of a fourth competitive force in broadcast television was in the public interest."
"We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become," they added.
Padden, who has recently expressed support for the Federal Communications Commission examining Murdoch's broadcasting licenses, told me by phone on Wednesday that the group had been privately communicating to each other about Fox News, lamenting what they had indirectly helped create.
"We had all talked individually about how we wished there was a way we could say something about how we feel," Padden said. "So I drafted something."
The blistering assessment of Murdoch's Fox News came on the same day that the right-wing network was sued — yet again — for defamation. Ray Epps, the Arizona man that conspiracy theorists have falsely claimed led an FBI plot to orchestrate the January 6 insurrection, alleged the network and former host Tucker Carlson ran a "years-long campaign spreading falsehoods" about him that "destroyed" his life.
It's only the latest lawsuit Fox News has faced for advancing false election conspiracy theories after Donald Trump was defeated at the ballot box in 2020.
The network in April agreed to a historic $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems after its high-profile hosts and guests spread lies on the air about the election technology company. In that same month, Fox News also settled an election-related lawsuit with a Venezuelan businessman who had sued the network.
More recently, Fox News settled a lawsuit with one of its former producers, Abby Grossberg, who accused her former employer of sexism and pressuring her into giving false testimony in the Dominion case. The network paid $12 million to Grossberg to settle the lawsuit, her lawyer said.
Fox News is also facing another major defamation lawsuit from voting technology company Smartmatic, which is suing the network for $2.7 billion.
Padden told me that he believes there is an "obvious connection between January 6 and Fox News," arguing it has been "vividly illustrated by the fact" that the network has been blamed in court, with one defendant even claiming he suffered "Foxitus."
"Apparently it is a disease you get from watching false news on Fox," Padden quipped on the phone.
In fact, Epps all but said that he too had a case of "Foxitus." In his lawsuit, Epps alleged that he was at the US Capitol on January 6 because he was "persuaded by the lies broadcast by Fox asserting the election had been stolen."
"I think that something has to be done about a news organization that earns the moniker 'Foxitus,'" Padden told me.
Padden said that the reception to their statement Wednesday had been overwhelmingly positive, with the trio receiving applause from many others who worked for Murdoch in the early years of Fox.
"Everybody shares the same frustration," Padden said.
