[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 49 (Thursday, March 16, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S819-S820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                FOX News

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, there are so many challenges facing us as 
a nation today, as we all know, but there is one overriding concern 
that I have. If we want our country to thrive and grow and be strong 
and be a democracy far into the future so we can solve the problems and 
challenges we face, then we must protect our democracy.
  Democracy. It is the core principle of America, the idea that we are 
a country where we can debate and can have free speech and where our 
voices matter. Americans must be able to trust and believe that all of 
us here, no matter our opinions or our beliefs, have a shared view that 
our democracy is sacred, that we understand what that means, and that 
we have a responsibility as leaders to preserve it; a democracy where 
we make decisions, we use our voices, we debate, we vote, but we never 
use brute force to get what we want. If we allow brute force to win the 
day, that would be the end of our democracy.
  Look, we agree and we disagree. We use our words to debate policy. We 
are passionate about what we believe in. But we also understand that 
not everything is debatable, that there is a reality in our world that 
we must understand and acknowledge and learn from so we can move 
forward as a country and make sure we never repeat the mistakes of the 
past. And I am talking about what happened on January 6, 2021.
  On that day, an attempt was made to overthrow an election, to use 
brute force and violence to change the outcome. We must agree as a 
country that using brute force to overturn this democracy is something 
we can never allow. In fact, if we want to solve any of those 
challenges in front of us, we need to have a strong democracy--period.
  That is why I have to speak out today about what is happening with 
the release of the January 6 tapes and the total misuse by a FOX News 
personality to distort and change the truth of what happened that day.
  As my colleagues know, I was here during the worst of the January 6 
insurrection, and when I say ``here,'' I mean here in the Capitol 
Building. I didn't happen to be on the floor when most Senators were 
evacuated; instead, I had to lock down in a room feet from here. I 
heard the crashes as those insurrectionists stormed this building. I 
heard their explicit calls for violence. I heard them banging on my 
door, trying to get in, trying to get me so they could do harm. I know 
firsthand that January 6 was a dark, violent chapter in our Nation's 
history. So imagine my shock and my anger to hear a prime time FOX News 
host trying to downplay this horrific event, trying to say this was 
just people on a sightseeing tour.

  I have taken constituents on a tour of the Capitol. I am sure the 
Presiding Officer has. I think we all know that you don't bring gas 
masks on a tour. You don't bring pepper spray on a tour. You do not 
bring bats or knives or tasers. They actually had zip-tie handcuffs in 
their possession.
  Tourists don't leave broken glass in the windows. They don't leave 
the blood of our Capitol Police officers on the floor. Tourists don't 
leave with stolen documents and laptops. They don't smear feces on the 
wall, and they don't put up gallows outside.
  For FOX News to let Tucker Carlson try and paper over this by showing 
a few minutes of footage--which, by the way, to be clear, even that 
footage is showing people who walked past gates, barricades, blaring 
alarms, and police lines, in total disregard of the law, to go 
somewhere it is abundantly clear that they should not. But to show that 
footage and pretend that it shows the full story, while ignoring the 
reality of the footage of offices being ransacked, equipment being 
stolen, windows broken, ignoring the footage of White supremacists 
parading these halls with Confederate flags and zip-tie handcuffs, 
ignoring the footage of Capitol Police being swarmed and beaten and 
battered--officers suffered cracked ribs and severe brain injuries. One 
officer lost an eye. Other officers took their lives in the aftermath. 
To try and paper over all of this as a ``sightseeing tour''--there just 
aren't words that do my anger justice, and the ones that get close are 
simply not suitable for this Senate floor.
  I am glad some Republican Senators have joined Democrats in calling 
out how dangerous and disingenuous this kind of coverage--or, perhaps 
more appropriately, coverup--is. But, honestly, there is a lot more 
that needs to be said about how we got here. New documents from the 
Dominion lawsuit made clear FOX News knowingly let hosts spread lies 
about the election and let them inflame the public with baseless 
conspiracies.
  I think my colleagues and reporters who cover me know I am not one to 
criticize the media lightly. I do not cry foul or bias or fake news at 
coverage that I don't like. We live in a country with free speech and 
free press--thank goodness. We have many different points of view, and 
that all informs a robust debate in our democracy so people can effect 
change with their voices and their votes, not violence.
  But there is a basic premise that debate rests on, a basic 
responsibility inherent in these important rights: honesty. For our 
democracy to work, for our great debates to guide it effectively, the 
people who inform our public--the free press that we so rightly cherish 
and protect--need honest brokers.
  Let me be clear. When I say ``honest,'' I am not saying reporters 
have to be utterly objective or neutral or impersonal. I am not even 
saying they have to be 100 percent right all the time. No one is. But 
they have to tell the truth. They have to at least try to tell the 
truth. They owe that to the people whom they cover and the viewers who 
trust them. That shouldn't be too much to ask. Truly, it is the barest 
of minimums. It is the lowest bar.
  Yet, as the Dominion lawsuit is showing, FOX News has been utterly 
failing to meet it. In fact, they have been actively pushing lies and 
disinformation in the most cynical way possible.
  The depositions and discovery have shown plain as day, FOX News 
personalities were spreading dangerous lies, promoting shameless liars, 
and what is more, FOX knew it. We aren't talking about a difference of 
an opinion or an honest mistake. We are talking about fraud in prime 
time.
  They repeatedly brought on Sidney Powell to spout baseless 
conspiracies about Dominion voting machines. All the while, Tucker 
Carlson told his producer that Powell was lying. He told his colleague 
Laura Ingraham that Powell was lying. Ingraham's producer texted a FOX 
executive that he had told her the Dominion conspiracy was ``BS.'' 
Ingraham herself said Powell was a ``complete nut.'' Senior Vice 
President Shah said Powell was ``clearly full of it.'' Lou Dobbs' 
producer told him it was ``complete BS,'' only for the show to have 
Powell on 3 days later.
  I mean, the list of people at FOX News who knew President Biden 
fairly won that election and knew these fraud claims were baseless goes 
on and on, and, in fact, it goes straight to the top.
  Rupert Murdoch, owner of FOX News, called Rudy Giuliani's lies about 
the election ``really crazy stuff.'' Yet, as he admitted under oath, 
FOX News hosts

[[Page S820]]

endorsed those conspiracies, and he let it happen, even though he could 
have done more to step in and stop it.
  Instead of putting the Big Lie under scrutiny, FOX put it in prime 
time. And when reporters with the network tried to be accurate, tried 
to tell the truth, tried to set straight the lies their own network was 
spreading, they were reprimanded.
  Carlson, who told his colleagues Powell is lying, called for a FOX 
reporter to be fired for fact-checking a tweet about the Dominion 
conspiracy. Shah, the senior vice president who said Powell was full of 
it, labeled an anchor a ``brand threat'' for cutting away from an 
accurate Trump White House press conference. Another reporter was 
scolded for fact-checking the Powell-Giuliani press conference, which 
leaders at FOX acknowledged was rife with dangerous conspiracies.
  Let's be clear. This was the No. 1 cable news outlet in America 
stifling the truth. This is so dangerous, and we cannot--we absolutely 
cannot--accept this.
  Let's not forget the nature of those lies. They weren't just small 
white lies or debatable points. These were wild, sprawling conspiracies 
which were repeatedly debunked, including by FOX's own fact checkers 
and which were actually designed to disrupt the peaceful transition of 
power, designed to undermine the cornerstone of our democracy, the 
public's faith in our free and fair elections.

  And they did.
  On January 6, a violent mob, spurred by the lies that FOX spread, 
stormed this Capitol. And, now, as I detailed earlier, FOX hosts are 
lying about that. FOX News is discoloring our past when we should be 
learning from it--when we should be learning from it.
  It is important to consider the scope of those lies as well. This 
wasn't one anchor saying something dubious and network executives 
looking the other way. FOX engaged in a top-down, deliberate, and 
coordinated effort to push out lies to its viewers. We cannot ignore 
that.
  Tucker Carlson can selectively edit as much footage as he wants, but 
I refuse to let him succeed in rewriting history and lying to the 
American people about the January 6 insurrection.
  America has already seen what Tucker Carlson failed to show: windows 
being smashed in, officers being pushed and beaten and battered and 
pepper-sprayed, the floor of the House and Senate overrun by White 
supremacists in tactical gear, a gallows on the Hill, a mob chanting 
``Hang Mike Pence.''
  I was here with one locked door between me and the violent mob 
shouting ``Kill the infidels.'' And when the dust settled, I walked 
with my colleagues through the halls, littered with broken glass, the 
offices that had been ransacked, and I stood here with my colleagues to 
cast a vote insurrectionists had stormed the building to stop. I will 
never forget that. Who could?
  And I will never forget, and I will never let our country forget it, 
either, despite what FOX News has done and is doing to try and rewrite 
this chapter of our Nation's history.
  This is not how legitimate news organizations behave. How are viewers 
supposed to trust them? How am I supposed to trust that they will 
represent my positions fairly?
  Now, I will say, there are reporters at FOX who are committed to the 
basic principles of objective journalism and the truth, and I respect 
them. And many reporters at local FOX affiliates are doing their best 
to report the honest truth to viewers in my home State of Washington 
and around the country. But do you know what? Even if I trust them to 
try and work in good faith, how do I trust they will not get overruled 
by the same executives who oversaw this election disinformation 
operation?
  I think it is important to say, and it is also worth noting, that the 
lies about the election and insurrection may be the most egregious and 
dangerous examples right now, but there are many other ways the 
dishonesty at FOX News is poisoning the debate for important 
conversations and debate.
  How are we supposed to debate climate change when half the 
conversation is fact-free denialism? How are we supposed to discuss 
public health when deadly vaccine misinformation is given one of the 
world's biggest megaphones?
  Here is the honest truth. Public figures and other media outlets need 
to grapple with this: Tucker Carlson is determined to make sure FOX 
News is not news at all.
  FOX is a political vehicle for Rupert Murdoch and his rightwing 
causes. It is a political entity that will gladly push disinformation 
and lies if it means profits and political gain. Let's just call it 
what it is.
  So until FOX does a complete 180 to fix this, until Tucker Carlson 
apologizes and issues a comprehensive correction, until Mr. Murdoch and 
his executives stop with the lies and election conspiracy theories--
and, by the way, they will have to give a real reason if they want us 
to believe them--until that happens, we should not pretend that Murdoch 
and Carlson are going to allow FOX News to be news at all. I certainly 
won't. And I don't say this lightly, but I encourage my colleagues to 
do the same.
  The essence of our democracy is at stake, because what I was 
reminded, on January 6, is that democracy doesn't happen just because 
we have it. Our democracy is only as strong as our commitment to it. We 
have to work for it. We have to make sure that it remains with us, and 
that is why I am on the floor speaking out today, because I will fight 
for our democracy.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I, first, want to compliment the President 
pro tempore of the Senate and her leadership here for now 30-plus years 
and her courage.
  She saw January more up close than most of us did. I say to the 
Senator: I believe you were with your husband in your office and heard 
those sounds and, I assume, had those fears. I appreciate your courage 
then and how you have talked about it in specific terms. Your 
genuineness really matters. So thank you for that.