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CNN’s Oliver Darcy salivates over leaked Fox News messages, claims it proves it’s a ‘propaganda network’

February 17, 2023 | | Print Article

CNN reporter Oliver Darcy seized upon alleged leaked messages in the Dominion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, asserting that communications from executives, on-air talent and producers prove the conservative media outlet is a “propaganda network.”

(Video Credit: CNN)

The leaked messages come from a filing by Dominion Voting Systems on Thursday during its defamation lawsuit against Fox News, which filed an amended counterclaim against them. It is unknown who actually leaked them.

A number of Fox News personalities have previously agreed with former President Trump that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and some hosts and guests reportedly claimed that Dominion’s voting machines were involved. This prompted Dominion to sue Fox News for $1.6 billion in damages.

“The messages exposed Fox News as a propaganda network,” Darcy proclaimed while appearing on “CNN This Morning” on Friday. “That’s what they do at the core.”

“They show in excruciating detail that the highest ranking executives at Fox News: Rupert Murdoch, Suzanne Scott, the CEO, as well as some of the top hosts like you just said, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Laura Ingraham, they knew, they privately knew the election claim frauds — fraud claims from the Trump team were nonsense,” he asserted.

Darcy continued his denigration of Fox News with ill-concealed glee.

“They used very harsh language to describe them. But they allowed the lies to take hold on the network’s air. And they show, the messages show that the talents over at Fox News and the executives were very worried after the election of the audience rebellion, that they were going to Newsmax,” he claimed.

“You remember that Donald Trump was attacking Fox News, was saying ‘turn the channel. Go to this Newsmax channel’ which is saturating the airwaves with election denialism. They were worried about this. And not only did they turn a blind eye to the election lies, but they even in some cases tried cracking down on those fact-checking Trump,” Darcy charged.

He went on to accuse Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity of trying to get White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich fired for trying to fact-check Trump.

“In one set of messages revealed in the court filing, Carlson texted Ingraham, saying that Sidney Powell, an attorney who was representing the Trump campaign, was ‘lying’ and that he had ‘caught her’ doing so. Ingraham responded, ‘Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy [Giuliani],’” Darcy wrote at CNN Business.

Those same leaked messages claim that as protesters were storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, Carlson was sending a text to his producer, Alex Pfeiffer, allegedly claiming that Trump is a “demonic force, a destroyer.”

“But he’s not going to destroy us,” Carlson is said to have told Pfeiffer.

That’s just one of a number of so-called leaked messages that were made public in the case by a judge.

It is yet to be seen if there is any truth to the purported leaked messages. CNN’s rankings are no longer tanking, they are at the bottom of the barrel and any attempt that presents itself to savage Fox News, which is winning in the ratings contest, is ostensibly welcomed by the leftist network.

In a statement released Thursday night, Fox News contended that the court filing contained cherry-picked quotes lacking context.

“There will be a lot of noise and confusion generated by Dominion and their opportunistic private equity owners, but the core of this case remains about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, which are fundamental rights afforded by the Constitution and protected by New York Times v. Sullivan,” the network claimed.

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