Smartmatic sued Fox News for $2.7 billion for defamation after Fox hosts promoted claims that the 2020 election was stolen and singled out Smartmatic and Dominion. Fox settled with Dominion for $787.5 million in 2023 just before trial after damaging pre-trial revelations. Mediaite reporting that Trump supporters chanted "Fox News sucks" following the network's Arizona call sparked alarm inside Fox, including a text from Porter Berry to Sean Hannity and producers and Hannity's "OMG" response. Senior executives expressed shock when a Fox anchor fact-checked a Hannity guest, with one exclaiming "This has to stop now."
On November 4, 2020, Porter Berry, head of Fox News Digital, sent a text to Fox News host Sean Hannity and his producers in which one of the producers sent a Mediaite article that reported a protest by Trump supporters chanting Fox News sucks to which Hannity responded, OMG. (Ex. 190; Ex. 109 at 73:9-75:12, 76:3-77:7; see also Ex. 191 (Mediaite article).
On November 5, 2020, Jay Wallace, President and Executive Editor of Fox News, and Bill Sammon were told by Chief White House Correspondent John Roberts that the network was taking major heat for [Arizona] call and that viewers are also chanting Fox News sucks.' (Ex. 206; see also Ex. 144 at 142:22-143:21 (this was consistent with what Sammon had been hearing)).
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