GOP Senator Issues Warning to Fox News Over Matt Walsh’s Allegations About Network

Sen. Mike Lee speaks during #JusticeReformNow Capitol Hill Advocacy Day at Russell Senate Office Building in Washington on April 28, 2016. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) warned Fox News that it could risk alienating its viewer base following allegations by Daily Wire writer Matt Walsh that the company is internally promoting “pride” month and other left-wing initiatives.

“This kind of deliberate alienation of its own audience might not end well for Fox News. But for the fact that there is no other large cable news company in America that is widely known as conservative (or even right of center), this account could prove devastating,” Lee wrote, responding to a Twitter thread issued by Walsh, where Walsh claimed he obtained “internal [documents]” from current Fox News employees about the network’s LGBT-related initiatives.

Walsh wrote that Fox News, according to the internal documents and screenshots, is “supporting a group that gives sterilizing hormones to homeless youth, [and] deployed woke AI to monitor everyone.”

Fox News, he alleged, is currently promoting what were described as left-wing organizations that push for child gender transitions, including the Trevor Project, and he said the network encourages employees to read books written by transgender activists that feature explicit content.

“Not all Fox employees are happy with this propaganda,” Walsh wrote. “That might be why, last year, Fox experimented with a solution to monitor employees’ commitment to DEI. It’s an AI platform called Eskalera, which tracks employees’ commitment to the cult of DEI,” he wrote, referring to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Epoch Times has contacted Fox News for comment regarding Walsh’s claims. The company hasn’t publicly responded to Walsh.

Warning

Lee, in a Twitter thread, called on Fox News to issue a public statement if Walsh’s assertions are incorrect. But, he noted, the move could create opportunities for other right-wing broadcasters to step in.

“Fox News has a lot of good talent and produces much-needed, conservative content,” Lee told The Daily Signal after his Twitter comments. “But if that network turns on its (currently loyal) fan base—and becomes like literally every other broadcast and cable news outlet—its most avid viewers will go somewhere else, and they will do so quickly, never to return.”

In Twitter posts, Walsh made reference to New York City laws that may require employers based in the city to use transgender pronouns, titles, and names of certain individuals. Fox News is headquartered in New York City, and it has a significant presence in California, a Democrat-dominated state.

“Do the executives and owners just not know what’s happening in their company?” he asked. “Are they trying to comply with some onerous New York State Law? Do they not care? Do they actually support this nonsense? Fox News’ audience deserves to know.”

An advertisement features Fox News personalities, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, in New York City on March 13, 2019. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The New York City Human Rights Law mandates that employers use pronouns, titles, and the name with which a person identifies, regardless of whether it coincides with their biological sex. That law could be violated if a person intentionally refuses to use the pronouns, names, or titles.

That law also mandates that employees “be permitted to use single gender facilities, such as restrooms or locker rooms … that most closely align with their gender, regardless of their gender expression, sex assigned at birth, anatomy, medical history, or the sex or gender indicated on their identification.”

In the meantime, Fox released an article on June 14 saying that Fox News Digital “continued to dominate online news organizations” and generated some 3.1 billion “multiplatform minutes,” outpacing CNN and The New York Times.

Other Potential Issues

In recent months, Fox News also drew flak on social media after it parted ways with Tucker Carlson, its previously top-rated host, and reportedly sent a cease-and-desist order to his team earlier this month. Neither Fox nor Carlson have publicly addressed the letter, and the network has not responded to an Epoch Times request for comment on the matter.

Carlson has released several videos on Twitter that have drawn tens of millions of viewers in recent days.

Unconfirmed reports from Axios and other outlets say that Carlson is still under contract until early 2025. When Fox News announced Carlson’s departure, it said that it was parting ways with Carlson and didn’t say he was fired, which some legal analysts say is a key distinction.

“There was an announcement that Fox was parting ways with Tucker Carlson, which is an important distinction,” employment lawyer Peter Rahbar told the Observer. “They didn’t say he was terminated. They elected to exercise a clause in most of these contracts for TV personalities.”

Rahbar then claimed that Carlson is “desperate to get back on air” and “doesn’t want to abide by the contract,” adding: “What it appears he is doing is knowingly violating his contract by broadcasting his show on Twitter. And he’s challenging Fox to do something about it.”

“Behind the scenes, it means he tried to negotiate an exit, and it didn’t work. He’s trying to put pressure on Fox to come to the table, and Fox isn’t doing it. I assume the next step in these matters, if he doesn’t stop, is probably going to be Fox suing for an injunction,” Rahbar said.