katy tur. can dominion win? new court documents are providing even more evidence that fox news hosts and executives knew the election was fair, knew the allegations of fraud were bogus, and that those pushing them were, quote, lying, and yet, pushed those lies anyway. it s remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things. former fox news managing editor and vice president bill salmon said the network pushed the false claims. maybe sean and laura went too far, rupert murdoch said of handy and ingraham, the day after joe biden s inauguration. it s been suggested that fox s prime time hosts should say something like the election is over and joe biden won said fox president suzanne scott to rupert murdoch. he replied that a version of this would go a long way to stop the trump myth that the election was stolen. all of these quotes show that what fox knew and said privately was a 180 from what the network was telling its audience, but does it clear the bar for defam
conspiracies by the ex-president and his allies including in the media. in its $1.6 billion defamation case pierces the hermetically sealed bubble that is fox news. the network that drives the conversation and conduct in the republican party and on the right like none other. it shows that hosts on fox news either peddled the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen from trump or gave the platform for people to spread the big lie that the election was stolen from trump for one reason and one reason only, fear, terror really of losing viewers and tumbling stock prices and viewers migrating to more radical outlets. messages and emails obtained by dominion along with testimony from fox news employees and hosts reveals that it was well known and bantered about inside fox news that the vote fraud conspiracies were as rupert murdoch put it terrible stuff, damaging everybody. and that it was, quote, very hard to credibly claim foul. claim foul, they did and panic over viewers turnin
we are grateful. the beat with ari melber starts right now. i m ari melber. the top story rocking conservative politics and fox news tonight is a huge new leak about this moment in 2020 when fox news accurately reported biden won arizona, which stoked a maga backlash which upended the network, fed the series of journalists that fox now is facing potential accountability for, potentially over a billion dollars in lawsuit fines. it s also now led to the absolute blockbuster leak to the new york times. if you re think, or i heard about other leaks, this one is different and new and narrates a secret meeting between fox execs and hosts about that arizona call. an internal freakout where viewers were mad and bailing on fox because they reported in that instance, one, undeniable fact about the election. and the executives and anchors, great bare and mar that mccollum, on this call they discuss they were losing viewers because they correctly called arizona for biden. and the
makers and dealers i ll talk to tennessee state senator, london lamar, in just minutes. and later, outfoxed? fox news hit with the bigges media settlement in the united states history, for helpin amplify donald trump s big lie i want to know, has fox news learned its lesson all of that and more, is comin up and a good saturday morning to you, i am katie phang for the next 25 days, millions of women across the countr will still have access to th widely used abortion pill, mifepristone the united states supreme cour temporarily pu o lower court rulings that put restrictions on the drug nationwide this means patients can stil access mifepristone, excuse me by mail, and use it up to te weeks of pregnancy as appeal continue to play out in th fifth circuit. but this legal battle coul take months or even longer joining me now is nbc news investigative reporter, chlo atkins chloe, good morning. thanks for starting us off conservative justices clarence thomas and samuel alito
to give you some idea what change looks like on an issue that some fear is impervious to it. take a look at the front page of today s nashville, tennessee and lee. it reads that republican governor bill lee wants gun law action and beneath it, jones, meaning democratic state representative justin jones expelled after gun violence. protests on the statehouse floor reclaims his seat in the legislature. two major bipartisan developments in the wake of last month school shooting in nashville happening with remarkable speed, creating a front page that might have seemed inconceivable just a few days ago, and that was before local officials voted today to reinstate the second expelled state representative justin j. pearson of memphis last night on this program, representative jones said he saw a change of heart in governor lee and then perhaps another sign of that both his reinstatement and representative pearsons today were unanimous. representative pearson joins us now, representa