[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 39 (Wednesday, March 1, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S540-S541]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Rupert Murdoch

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Monday evening, reports came out that 
Rupert Murdoch, owner of FOX News, acknowledged in a deposition that 
hosts of the network promoted the false narrative that Donald Trump won 
the 2020 election.
  Asked if he could have stepped in to prevent this, Mr. Murdoch 
acknowledged that he could have but chose not to--he could have stepped 
in but chose not to--and expressed regret for not doing so.
  To this day, several FOX News hosts continue promoting the Big Lie. 
They keep spreading the Big Lie despite mounting evidence that, behind 
the scenes, many top hosts and executives at FOX have recognized that 
the stolen election narrative is entirely bogus. Nevertheless, they 
continue broadcasting it all the time.
  This morning, Leader Jeffries and I wrote a letter to Mr. Murdoch 
demanding that he do what he should have done a long time ago: Order 
Tucker Carlson and other hosts on FOX News to stop spreading lies about 
the election. They need to stop giving a platform to dangerous and 
entirely unfounded conspiracy theories that eat at the wellspring of 
our democracy, and they need to admit on the air that they were wrong 
to engage in such negligent and destructive behavior.
  Sadly, too much damage has already been done to our democracy. A 
significant segment of voters--by some measures, as much as 30 percent 
of the electorate--still do not believe that the 2020 election was 
legitimate. What FOX News hosts have done is flat-out dangerous--
dangerous. When people doubt that elections are on the level, that is 
the beginning of the end of this wonderful democracy because elections 
are our wellspring. They are the core of what the Founding Fathers set 
up. It was the great novelty of the Constitution that has spread around 
the world.
  When conspiracy theories like the Big Lie are allowed to grow, 
violence can ensue, as we all saw for ourselves on January 6.
  Mr. Murdoch's testimony is all the more alarming after Speaker 
McCarthy is reportedly allowing Tucker Carlson to review highly 
sensitive security camera footage of the events surrounding the violent 
January 6 insurrection. Sharing that footage is a grave mistake that 
risks emboldening the supporters of the Big Lie.
  Mr. Murdoch, FOX News executives, and hosts all have a choice--a very 
important choice: They can continue broadcasting lies about our 
elections and further erode trust in our democracy or they can admit 
their mistake, start telling the truth, and move beyond this shameful 
chapter in their company's history by coming clean with their viewers 
and with the American people. We hope Mr. Murdoch

[[Page S541]]

heeds our call. The survival of our democracy is too important.


                       Railway Safety Act of 2023

  Mr. President, on the new bipartisan bill, later today, a bipartisan 
group of Senators, including Senators Brown and Vance of Ohio and 
Fetterman and Casey of Pennsylvania--a bipartisan group--plan to 
introduce the Railway Safety Act of 2023.
  In the aftermath of the terrible accident in East Palestine, this is 
precisely the kind of proposal we need to see in Congress--a bipartisan 
rail safety bill, one that includes provisions relevant to the accident 
that happened a month ago.
  I salute them for this fine bipartisan effort and commit to them that 
I am going to work with the sponsors of the bill to move this bill 
forward. We should pass it--a bipartisan bill--here in the Senate and 
hopefully in the House. I will do whatever I can to make sure that 
happens.
  The bill is as smart as it is necessary. It includes provisions to 
increase safety protocols for trains with hazardous materials, new 
requirements for crews operating trains, and increases the fines that 
can be imposed on rail companies that engage in reckless behavior.
  We must do more because an accident like the one in East Palestine 
didn't come out of the blue. On the contrary, the Chair of the NTSB 
said the Norfolk Southern derailment was 100 percent preventable. The 
fault here lies with rail companies that spent years lobbying to slash 
crucial safety regulations intended to keep people safe. It has created 
a dangerous culture where the profit motive is king above all others, 
even above the need to keep people safe.
  There are countless small towns just like East Palestine across 
America with rail lines running through them. In my dear State of New 
York, there are lots of them, particularly in Upstate. They are all at 
greater risk when rail giants work together to slash safety, slash 
worker compensation, and place shareholder returns above everything 
else.