Fox News CEO warned against ‘crazies’ after 2020 election, Dominion says : NPR

Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, shown at a 2014 event in New York City, warned colleagues not to "give the crazies an inch" after pressure rose from supporters of then President

Trump. Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems indicate they to use Scott's words against Fox in its $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network. Larry Busacca/Getty Images hide

caption toggle caption Larry Busacca/Getty Images Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, shown at a 2014 event in New York City, warned colleagues not to "give the crazies an inch"

after pressure rose from supporters of then President Trump. Lawyers for Dominion Voting Systems indicate they to use Scott's words against Fox in its $1.6 billion defamation suit

against the network. Larry Busacca/Getty Images Besieged by angry viewers, denounced by then-President Trump, questioned by some of its own stars, Fox News found itself in a

near-impossible spot on Election Night 2020 after its election analysis team announced before any other network that Joe Biden would win the pivotal swing state of Arizona. Fox

News CEO Suzanne Scott proved so flummoxed by what ensued that she warned colleagues, "We can't give the crazies an inch." That's according to the account of a lawyer for Dominion

Voting Systems, which is seeking $1.6 billion from Fox in a defamation suit over false allegations on the network that the company committed election fraud. A trial date is set for

April in Delaware. The voting machine and technology company's attorney, Justin Nelson, revealed Scott's remarks in a court proceeding on Tuesday in which he argued that Dominion's

legal team is entitled to receive the employment contracts of 13 Fox News executives, including Scott. She has served as CEO since 2018. (Dominion is also suing Fox Corp, the

network's parent company.) In a ruling yesterday, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric M. Davis affirmed that Dominion should receive the contracts - the point of contention in

Tuesday's hearing. For days after the election, Trump and his top aides demanded the network rescind its announcement of Biden's victory in Arizona, even pressuring the network's

controlling owners, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. In the weeks that followed, a cadre of Fox News stars hosted Trump's advisers - and even Trump himself - to peddle baseless

conspiracy theories of election fraud. Many of those false claims asserted without evidence that Dominion's technology and machines had been used to rig the vote and to cheat Trump

of the White House. According to Nelson's remarks at the hearing, senior Fox News executives interceded to try to block Fox Business stars Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo from having