Fox News Under Fire Over January 6 Coverage

A former Fox News reporter has filed a lawsuit against the network for retaliation, discrimination and wrongful termination, accusing executives of firing him over his objection to its "false coverage" of the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

Jason Donner, who joined Fox News in 2010 and went on to become a Capitol Hill reporter and producer, has stated that he was terminated by the network in the fall of 2022. He now works as a senior adviser to Rep Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

In his lawsuit, which was filed in Washington D.C. Superior Court, Donner alleges that Fox News knew former President Donald Trump's claims that voter fraud led to his 2020 election loss were false, but aired such assertions to abate backlash from viewers, some of whom were incensed by the network's early Arizona call for President Joe Biden.

"To win back viewership and pledge its loyalty to President Trump, Fox's corporate leadership purged the news division and those reporters who spoke out against claims of election fraud," reads the suit, which was filed on September 27, but was first reported on by the Daily Beast on Monday.

The lawsuit also states that while Donner "did not share many of the views expressed by Fox News' Opinion page, or the evening-hour television commentators, it did not impact his ability to report on Capitol Hill news until the wake of the 2020 election."

Newsweek has contacted a representative of Fox News via email for comment.

It is alleged in the lawsuit that Fox News "immediately capitulated to Trump" after he lashed out at the network. Per the suit, around 20 journalists were laid off following the election, including Chris Stirewalt, the reporter who announced Arizona for Biden on air on election night.

The filing references a text message Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott sent, in which she is quoted as saying that their Arizona call "was damaging but we will highlight our stars and plant flags letting the viewers know we hear them and respect them." Scott had allegedly sent the message to Lachlan Murdoch, a co-chair of Fox News' parent company, News Corp.

Donner said that he was admonished and barred from expressing his "opinions," after he shared a post on X, formerly Twitter, in which he fact-checked former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani over his claim of voter fraud in Philadelphia.

The complainant said that he was working in the Senate's radio and television correspondents' gallery at the time that the Capitol was breached by rioters seeking to disrupt the formalizing of Biden's victory. Donner noted in his suit that he was disappointed that Fox News anchors were, at the time, describing the insurrectionists as "peaceful."

"I'm your Capitol Hill producer inside the Capitol where tear gas is going off on the second floor in the Ohio Clock corridor, rioters are storming the building, reports of shots fired outside the House chamber," his lawsuit claims Donner told the Fox News control room at the time. "I don't want to hear any of this f****** s*** on our air ever again because you're gonna get us all killed."

The lawsuit seeks undisclosed damages and expenses, and a judgment that would bar Fox News from retaliating against Donner, as well as other current or former employees of the network.

In March of this year then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson said that video footage taken from inside the U.S. Capitol showed that the January 6 rioters were mere "sightseers."

The conservative pundit said during a Tucker Carlson Tonight broadcast that the small portion of the footage, some of more than 40,000 hours of tape provided to him by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, did not show an "insurrection or a riot in progress."

Carlson claimed, without evidence, that the Democratic Party and the media had conspired to suppress the footage because it "demolishes" the narrative of a riot taking place, while conceding that some of those who breached the Capitol were "hooligans."

"The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress," Carlson said. "The video record does not support the claim that January 6 was an insurrection. In fact, it demolishes that claim. And that's exactly why the Democratic Party and its allies in the media prevented you from seeing it."

"The crowd was enormous," he continued. "A small percentage of them were hooligans, they committed vandalism[...]but the overwhelming majority weren't. They were peaceful, they were ordinary and meek. These were not insurrectionists, they were sightseers."

Carlson suddenly departed Fox News the following month, in April. His exit ended his 6-year reign as Fox News' ratings star, after he was elevated to primetime in 2017 following the inauguration of Trump.

The circumstances surrounding Carlson's exit were publicly unclear at the time, with the host saying he was informed of his departure from the network some 10 minutes before the official announcement. It came days after Fox News settled a defamation lawsuit, brought by Dominion Voting Systems, for $787.5 million.

Dominion had sought $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News, claiming the company damaged its reputation during coverage of the 2020 election by repeatedly amplifying false claims that Dominion machines were used to rig ballots in favor of Biden over Trump.

In May, it was reported that Carlson was fired from Fox News after the board became concerned about a text message the host sent to a producer the day after the January 6 attack.

The message, which Carlson sent on January 7, 2021, showed the former network anchor discussing how he had watched a video showing at least three "Trump guys" beating an 'Antifa kid.'"

Carlson's text went on to state that "jumping a guy" was "dishonorable" and "not how white men fight." Carlson also said he found himself "rooting for the mob" against the man being attacked, "hoping they'd hit him harder, kill him," before being dismayed in himself at this reaction.

The text was acquired during the discovery process of Dominion Voting Systems' defamation lawsuit against Fox, and was seen by the network's board one day before the company was due to defend itself in the civil trial.

In March of this year, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade criticized 2024 presidential hopeful Trump for his seeming obsession with the plight of the rioters as "absolutely awful" and "insane" amid a campaign season dominated by other issues.

In particular, Kilmeade admonished Trump for spending "80 percent of his time" on the campaign trail "complaining about court cases" instead of explaining how he would address issues facing the country.

Several days earlier, Fox News host Harris Faulkner described Trump as a "philanderer" in a discussion about his then-pending indictment by the Manhattan district attorney's office over alleged hush money payments made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.