• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 6, 2023

Lachlan Murdoch, executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corp., did not like what was on the screen at Fox News Channel in the days after January 6.

In particular, there was a typical lower-third screen headline of sorts for viewers — something virtually all TV news shows do — almost on a non-stop basis. Murdoch believed Fox loyal viewers would be upset.

Jeremy Peters wrote in The New York Times that what he saw was a “negative tone toward [Donald] Trump in the chyron — the block of text that appears at the bottom of the screen. It was too wordy, he said, and "too negative" about the president.

Sounds like there was some behind-the-scenes drama at the biggest U.S. TV news network.

And then, of course, there was the high-profile issue of Fox News Channel — somewhat ironically, some would say — being the first to call the key state of Arizona in the 2020 Presidential election for Joe Biden. The thinking afterward among executives was that maybe Fox should fire the guy who made the prediction — to calm down the Trump faithful. Perhaps a bit more drama there, especially so soon afterwards.

To be sure, none of this behind-the-scenes drama will find its way onto Fox News Channel screens now — either by honest disclosure from on-air hosts or otherwise.

Instead, now Tucker Carlson will offer up a different perspective. He has first-access rights to some 42,000 hours of sensitive Capitol Police security videos.

Will we see a different side of the U.S. Capitol Police? Or maybe it will be just protestors standing around — unlike previous video of the more violent actions of protestors bashing windows or striking out at police officers with whatever they had on hand.

This is what editing is about and what journalism is about — telling a story.

A more problematic challenge is that security issues around cameras and other behind-the-scenes information could reveal or compromise efforts or strategies that the police use.

But how does all this now affect what we just learned — that Fox News Channel hosts such as Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, privately, via emails and text messages, were aghast over what Trump and his cohorts were doing?

It was not just Fox News Channel news hosts, but executive producers as well who did not believe the conspiracy theories.

Still, they went along with it because loyal viewers expected them to back their beliefs that certain forces were involved in stealing the election.

I mean, come on. Who couldn't resist this story line? Certainly Fox competitors — CNN and MSNBC, which have covered this behind-the-scenes story about a news operation.

Just remember one thing while you take in Fox News Channel's deep-dive version of the January 6 event. Remember what then-minority GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy said a day after in the U.S. Capitol — that Trump “bears responsibility.”

A few days later, he repeated similar remarks to House Republicans: “Let me be clear to you, and I have been very clear to the President. He bears responsibility for his words and actions. No if, ands or buts.”

McCarthy has not backtracked from his words on that day or the following days.

Perhaps Fox News Channel should make sure to play that House video and those remarks to House Republicans over and over again — as well as those now-public disclosures for Fox hosts and producers in the Dominion Voting Systems case.

I mean, all this is news, yes? If not, perhaps Fox should consider changing the name of its network.