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A former Capitol Hill reporter for Fox Information filed a lawsuit in opposition to the community Monday accusing it of wrongfully firing him over his opposition to its protection of the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The reporter, Jason Donner, filed the lawsuit in Washington, D.C., Superior Courtroom accusing Fox Information of discrimination, wrongful termination, retaliation and violating the District of Columbia’s Human Rights Act when it fired him within the fall of 2022 after greater than a decade on the community.
Although Donner says within the lawsuit he typically disagreed politically with the cable information community’s huge personalities, he claims it didn’t pose an issue for him professionally till the fallout from the 2020 election, when then-President Donald Trump pushed baseless claims that his reelection was “stolen” by means of widespread vote fraud, culminating in tons of of his supporters storming the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers met to certify that Joe Biden had been elected president.
At Fox Information, Donner claims, “reporters have been going through stress from the top-down to push the ‘election fraud claims.’” He says he was reprimanded for tweeting out information concerning the election, together with his boss telling him to not tweet his “opinions.”
Issues got here to a head on Jan. 6, when Donner, stationed contained in the Capitol because it was coming underneath siege, heard Fox Information reporting that the rioters have been “peaceable.” He says within the lawsuit that he known as the community’s management room and stated: “I’m your Capitol Hill Producer contained in the Capitol the place tear fuel goes off on the second flooring within the Ohio clock hall, rioters are storming the constructing, experiences of pictures fired exterior the Home Chamber. I don’t wish to hear any of this fucking shit on our air ever once more since you’re gonna get us all killed.”
Donner says he raised issues concerning the community’s protection of Jan. 6 together with his superiors, in addition to issues concerning the platform the community was giving to anti-vaccine politicians. Nonetheless, Fox Information continued to air content material that questioned the information of Jan. 6, together with in a three-part documentary through which Tucker Carlson prompt the riot was truly orchestrated by Trump opponents to discredit his supporters.
In spring 2022, Donner’s lawsuit says, the reporter’s superiors accused him of making a “poisonous” office setting however refused to supply any particulars about his alleged wrongdoings.
“It turned evident to Donner he was now being focused for talking out in opposition to the false reporting on the election and the January sixth riot, and for his political affiliation,” the lawsuit states. “Fox Information’ administration was pushing a far right-wing agenda within the information division, and Donner wouldn’t adjust to their calls for to inaccurately report on the election and former President Trump.”
When Fox Information fired Donner in September 2022, it claimed it was as a result of he was late for work and didn’t present up for work, the lawsuit states. Donner had missed workdays earlier when he known as in sick over a response to the COVID-19 vaccine, however he contends this was simply the community’s excuse.
“Finally, Fox Information wished to purge the information division of any workers that will not get in step with the directive to solely report info that [would] appease the Trump supporters and former President Trump,” the lawsuit states.
A spokesperson for Fox Information didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the lawsuit.
Donner at the moment works as a senior adviser to Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who voted in opposition to impeaching Trump for his position in inciting the Jan. 6 riot.
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