Rupert Murdoch said Fox News continued airing Mike Lindell's ads even after his voter fraud rants because of how much 'green' Lindell provided for the network: court filing

• Dominion Voting Systems' new court filing details how important Mike Lindell was to Fox News.

• "The man is on every night. Pays us a lot of money," read Rupert Murdoch's deposition.

• Murdoch said that Fox News continued running Lindell's ads because of the "green," not politics.

Rupert Murdoch, the media magnate behind the sprawling Fox News media empire, was eager to keep the election-denying MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's advertisements on-air because of how much ad revenue he provided to the network, per a new court filing from Dominion Voting Systems.

"The man is on every night. Pays us a lot of money," read a snippet from Murdoch's January deposition in a court filing released on Monday. "At first you think it's comic, and then you get bored."

Murdoch went on to admit in his deposition that he could have pulled Lindell's MyPillow advertisements — but did not. This was even after the pillow CEO made wild, unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud on Fox News' programs, per Dominion's court filing.

"It is not red or blue, it is green," Murdoch agreed during his deposition — presumably a reference to money.

Dominion's filing on Monday also alleges that Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott sent Lindell gifts and urged various Fox shows to book Lindell to "get ratings." But Lindell told Insider in mid-February that the idea that Fox might have bought him a gift is a "Dominion lie" and that Fox "never sent anything."

Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit, which alleges the network pushed a conspiracy theory that their systems helped to rig the 2020 election. Lindell is also facing a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion. The company has accused him of hurting their business by spreading baseless conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud.

In a call with Insider on Monday, Lindell complained that Fox News has not had him on-air for a while.

"Ever since Smartmatic sued Fox News, no one in this country can go on any conservative stations and talk about the election," Lindell told Insider.

When asked about how Fox News stood by him and refused to pull his ads, Lindell said that he commends the network for "not punishing MyPillow" and standing up to Dominion.

"I mean, I'm glad that Fox News doesn't boycott because it has nothing to do with MyPillow and my 2,000 employees if I'm standing up for my country and trying to try to raise the flag of these machine companies that were hacked," Lindell told Insider, once again pushing an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that voting machines were rigged during the 2020 election.

Lindell in 2021 was one of Fox's biggest advertisers, The Washington Post reported. It is unclear how much Lindell gives Fox News now to air his ads, or if he is as prominent of an advertiser as he was during the Capitol riot.

But Lindell and Fox News have had their share of disagreements — the network in September 2021 refused to run an ad where Lindell promoted a voter-fraud symposium. This move from Fox News resulted in Lindell pulling his ads from the network temporarily.

A Fox News spokesperson told Insider that Dominion is trying to "publicly smear Fox." The spokesperson also accused Dominion of "mischaracterizing the facts" and trying to "generate headlines" about its defamation lawsuit against Fox.

A Dominion Voting Systems spokesperson told Insider: "Dominion is a strong believer in the First Amendment and its protections. As long-settled law makes clear, the First Amendment does not shield broadcasters that knowingly or recklessly spread lies."

Meanwhile, Lindell has not stopped claiming that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. In February, Lindell told late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that he has spent more than $40 million pushing Trump's baseless claims of voter fraud.

This total sum is up from the $25 million estimate Lindell gave Insider in December 2021. The figure amounts to four-fifths of Lindell's estimated $50 million net worth.

March 3, 2023: This story has been updated to reflect that Murdoch agreed with the characterization of Lindell's contribution to Fox News. 

Read the original article on Business Insider