Articles of Distraction

[Angrboda]

Fox News employees expressed concerns network was intentionally aiding Trump, legal filings reveal

Fox News employees expressed concerns about the network’s editorial standards and the conduct of top hosts in an internal survey conducted in the summer and fall of 2020, with one going as far as to wonder if they had sold their “soul to the devil”, according to legal filings.

The employees’ statements were excerpted in a 771-page filing released last week, made public as part of a defamation lawsuit filed against the network by voting technology company Smartmatic.

The comments come from an anonymous internal survey – the “Fox News 2020 Great Place to Work Trust Index Survey” – of 1,040 employees conducted between 24 August 2020 and 8 September 2020. Several employees expressed concerns that the network was intentionally aiding Donald Trump and the Republican party.

One anonymous employee said that Fox should “change the misogynist, racist, rightwing content”, adding: “Fox News is a propaganda machine for the Republican party NOT a news organization and should be acknowledged as such. It is embarrassing to tell people that I work here as even conservatives know [Fox News Channel] and [Fox Business Network] are biased information sources – not news.” While the employee called the work environment “great”, they said “the content is hateful and has made the world a more divided and angry place”.

“I sometimes go home fighting back tears,” an employee said. “This network made me question my morals. Have I sold my soul to the devil?”

An employee said the network should “get out of Trump’s pocket” and realize that its most prominent hosts – including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity – “are a total embarrassment, peddling BS and conspiracy theories”. “Many days I feel like I am part of the problem and FNC is contributing to hatred in this country,” the person said.

“This company aligns itself with the current administration and has lost its integrity,” an employee said. “I wish there was purpose for what we do other than pushing the brand, ideology and political will of [the president],” another comment read.