A Fox Corp shareholder has sued Fox Corp
chairman Rupert Murdoch, CEO Lachlan Murdoch and three other board directors, asserting that they breached their fiduciary responsibilities by allowing Fox News to broadcast conspiracy theories about
the 2020 election.
The other board directors named in the action are Chase Carey, Roland Hernandez and Jacques Nasser.
Plaintiff Robert Schwarz’s lawsuit, filed in Delaware
on Tuesday, contends that shareholders have been harmed because “The Board’s decision to chase viewers by promoting false stolen election claims has exposed the Company to public ridicule
and negatively impacted the credibility of Fox News as a media organization that is supposed to accurately report newsworthy events. The Company is now the subject of two defamation cases, with
combined damages claimed to exceed $4 billion.”
Fox “knew — from the Board on down — that Fox News was reporting false and dangerous misinformation about the 2020
Presidential election,” but “was more concerned about short-term ratings and market share than the long-term damages of its failure to tell the truth,” the derivative action filing
charges, based on internal Fox Corp/Fox News communications, depositions and other evidence released as part of Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6-billion defamation suit against Fox, set to go to trial next Monday.
The action,
Schwarz v. Murdoch et al, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, seeks damages for the company from the named board directors and unspecified corporate governance reforms.
Digital News Daily
has reached out to Fox representatives for comment, and will update this story accordingly.