Fox News isn’t allowed to spread election lies on television — but James Corden can tell a white lie here and there on his own talk show. That’s the logic Corden used, at least, while discussing the “outrage” of Rupert Murdoch’s recent testimony asserting Fox News anchors knew reports they amplified of election fraud were false.
During his Tuesday night monologue, Corden discussed recent headlines and commented on the mess that Fox Corporation is embroiled in, following revelations unearthed by Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News that revealed many news hosts knowingly spread lies to its audience.
“When reached for comment, Fox News replied, ‘Whoopsie daisy!’” the late night host joked.
Still, Corden denounced Fox News’ behavior.
“This whole thing — this is an outrage,” James Corden said. “You can’t just openly lie on television.”
Corden then gave a pregnant pause and got a coy look on his face.
“Unless of course, you’re claiming on your own talk show that you’ve watched your guest’s new brilliant movie, or you’ve loved their incredible book, or listened to their wonderful album,” he said. “That is completely different. That’s a good lie. It’s a nice lie.”
And Corden might have a point. The former behavior inspires lawsuits and ruins reputations, while the latter merely saves face. Fox News is definitely not saving any face right now.
Even Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of the media empire that owns Fox News, admitted in a deposition that several hosts promoted the conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from former reality star Donald Trump, confirmed by court documents released Monday. Murdoch also confirmed that while he could’ve stopped them, he didn’t.
Fox, meanwhile, remained steadfast in denying it had defamed Dominion in a Monday statement: “Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment.”
Watch Corden’s full “Late Late Show” monologue in the video above.
