Fox News paid almost a billion dollars in legal settlements to bury the contents of this āessentialā¦grinding, momentum-buildingā (The New York Times) account of the networkās blatant attempts to manipulate the truth, mislead the public, and influence our electionsāfrom the New York Times bestselling author of Hoax.
The ongoing criminal trials of Donald Trump are also a trial for the nation he once led. We are undergoing a stress test of American democracy, the rule of law, and the very notion of a shared political reality. Can we achieve accountability for premeditated assaults on democracy and what forms should accountability take?
In Network of Lies, New York Times bestselling author Brian Stelter answers these questions by weaving together private texts, unpublished emails, depositions, and other primary sources to tell the chilling story of Trumpās alleged conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, and the right-wing mediaās mission to put him back in office in 2024.
Trump couldnāt have convinced millions of Americans of the Big Lie without Fox News. From the moment Joe Biden became president-elect in 2020, Fox hosts fueled a fire of misinformation and violence by spreading Trumpās tales of election fraud and suppressing the truth. Come January, Sean Hannity insisted Trump needed to stop listening to ācrazy peopleā who swore he could stay in power, but it was too lateāthousands of Trumpās deluded followers had stormed the Capitol and Trump operatives had breached Dominion Voting Systemsā voting machines in Georgia.
Now, the 2020 lies are at the center of numerous indictments and his reelection campaign, but Trump is not the only one under fire. The once-untouchable Rupert Murdoch has been held accountable. Dominionās legal war, chronicled in-depth for the first time here, revealed that the ninety-two-year-old Fox chairman knew Trumpās lies were dangerous but he allowed the lies to fill Foxās airwaves because, as his āpain spongeā Suzanne Scott admitted, telling the truth was ābad for business.ā
Network of Lies goes inside the chat rooms, board rooms, and court rooms where the pro-Trump mediaās greed and selfishness were exposed. Featuring Stelterās āthorough and damningā (The New York Times) investigative prowess and direct quotations so shocking they read like fiction, Network of Lies is the definitive origin story of Trumpās attempt to tear down the guardrails of American democracy, and an urgent plea to learn from past mistakes as we head into 2024ās pivotal presidential election.