Three former Fox executives expressed “deep disappointment” for their roles in helping Rupert Murdoch launch Fox News, saying that their efforts helped create the “Fox disinformation machine.” In a blog post published on Wednesday, Ken Solomon, Bill Reyner and Preston Padden—all of whom took credit for “helping to give birth” to Fox’s television networks—detailed the parts they played in making Fox a TV powerhouse. Adding that they “all greatly admired Rupert Murdoch and his vision” during the 1990s, the trio lamented what the mogul’s company had become, noting that there “was no Fox News Channel on the horizon” at the time of their employment. “We never envisioned, and would not knowingly have enabled, the disinformation machine that, in our opinion, Fox has become,” they wrote. Citing the defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, the execs pointed out that a judge found that Fox knowingly aired lies about the 2020 election. “Fox did not appeal the decision but instead acknowledged it and paid nearly $800 million in damages to Dominion,” they stated. “In our opinion, the Fox News Channel has had many negative impacts on our society,” the blog continued, claiming the “worst has been Fox’s role in promoting Trump’s ‘Big Lie.’” Padden, who’s penned Fox-critical op-eds for The Daily Beast, recently supported a petition urging the FCC to yank a local Fox station’s broadcast license because the network aired “false news about the 2020 election.”
