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(Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)

Another day, another round of fallout for Fox News based from its coverage of the 2020 election.

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Today’s lesson in FIND OUT comes in the form of a lawsuit filed by former Capitol Hill reporter Jason Donner, who was fired from the network in September of 2022. In his complaint, which was originally flagged by Law & Crime, Donner says he was terminated as retaliation for his Democratic political affiliation in violation of DC’s Human Rights Act. Yesterday, Fox removed the proceeding to federal court on the basis of diversity.

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“This was a pretextual firing based on Donner’s political views and affiliation, his refusal to report false information regarding the 2020 election and January 6th, and for his engaging  in protected activity,” Donner writes in his complaint. “Ultimately, Fox News wanted to purge the news division of any staff that would not get in line with the directive to only report information that appease the Trump supporters and former President Trump.”

Echoing claims in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit, Donner claims that Fox did an about-face in 2021 in the face of wrath from its audience over the election night call of Arizona for Joe Biden.

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“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,” he said. “At the same time, Fox News changed the 7 p.m. hour, which had been devoted to news, to opinion focused programing.”

According to Donner, who now works for Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, he got pushback from his bosses in 2020 for factchecking Rudy Giuliani’s false claims about election fraud at the infamous RNC presser where the lawyer leaked hair dye at the lectern.

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At this presser, Rudy Giuliani keeps claiming voter fraud in Philadelphia, but he said this to a Pennsylvania court: “This is not a fraud case.”

— Jason Donner (@jason_donner) November 19, 2020

Two months later, as he hid in the Capitol watching his colleagues whitewash the ongoing attack, he called Fox’s control room and shouted, “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. I don’t want to hear any of this fucking shit on our air ever again because you’re gonna get us all killed.”

Fox also let Tucker Carlson run a three-part series on its streaming network hyping lunatic conspiracies about a government plot to incite a riot at the Capitol. That project comes up in the defamation suit filed by former Oath Keeper Ray Epps, whom Carlson falsely described as a federal agent. And it comes up in this lawsuit, because Donner said he participated in reporting debunking Carlson’s claims, after which he “had a target on his back with upper management.”

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In September of 2022, Donner became ill from a COVID booster shot and called out sick from work. Upon his return, he was fired, allegedly for lateness and unexcused absences. In this, he echoes claims by Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, who claimed that she was physically sickened by the hostile work environment at Fox — although not because of political discrimination, but instead because of constant sexism from her colleagues. She recently settled her claims for $12 million.

In his five-count complaint, Donner alleges wrongful termination and violations of the DC Human Rights Act and the DC Sick and Safe Leave Act. He has not made a specific damages demand, but seeks compensatory, punitive, and equitable relief. Guess we’ll find out if Lachlan Murdoch takes a different approach to litigation risk than his daddy.

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Donner v. Fox News Network LLC [Docketvia Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.

Topics

Courts, Fox News, Government