Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott raised the alarm about the potential financial consequences for the right-wing network if it kept vigorously fact-checking then-President Donald Trump's lies following the 2020 election, as per messages that became public Wednesday.

Scott once sent an email to Meade Cooper, executive vice president of prime-time programming, expressing her displeasure when a reporter of their own, Eric Shawn, made an appearance on Martha MacCallum's show and fact-checked both Donald Trump and a Sean Hannity guest.

“This has to stop now,” Scott stated in a December 2, 2020, message.

“This is bad for business and there is a lack of understanding what is happening in these shows,” she stressed. “The audience is furious and we are just feeding them material. Bad for business.”

NEW: Some of the slides used at the Summary Judgment hearing in the Dominion Voting v. Fox News case were made public today and Hoo boy, some are a doozy!

Here's an email dated 11/13/2020 from Fox Brainroom "Information Specialist" Leonard Balducci: pic.twitter.com/c0PncqyAYR

— Katie S. Phang (@KatiePhang) March 29, 2023

Apparently referring to the fact that MacCallum and Shawn fact-checked a guest who appeared on Hannity's show, a Fox News spokesperson was quoted by CNN as saying that Scott was allegedly not upset about the fact-checking issue but the matter was about "one presenter calling out another."

The relevant email was made public as part of the $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News. The email had previously been censored in earlier court files like numerous other records made public on Wednesday. At a hearing last week in Wilmington, Delaware, Dominion showed a PowerPoint that contained the fresh emails.

According to a court order, the voting technology company publicly revealed the entire slideshow on Wednesday. In response, Fox News accused Dominion of cherry-picking emails to promote a self-serving narrative about what the right-wing network did after the 2020 election.

Related News

California's Governor Newsom filing defamation suit against Fox

Trump fires Waltz, replaces him with Rubio in purge amid Signal fiasco

“These documents once again demonstrate Dominion’s continued reliance on cherry-picked quotes without context to generate headlines in order to distract from the facts of this case,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement. “The foundational right to a free press is at stake and we will continue to fiercely advocate for the First Amendment in protecting the role of news organizations to cover the news.”

An important email exchange between Rupert Murdoch and Fox Corporation Board of Directors Member, Paul Ryan: pic.twitter.com/wc1a8aW1Z2

— Katie S. Phang (@KatiePhang) March 29, 2023

In another email by Scott in November 2020, in which then-Fox News correspondent Kristin Fisher was harshly criticized for her supposed “dismissive tone” and "indifference to the audience," the CEO dropped a bombshell, disclosing that the company had “lost 25k subs from FOX NATION,” its streaming service.

The data on the Fox Nation subscriptions had been removed in earlier court papers, as per media reports.

The emails highlight the panic - which some dubbed an "internal war" within the US media giant - that engulfed Fox News following the 2020 election when its fans rebelled against the network for accurately calling President Joe Biden's victory.

In other recently disclosed emails, network producers were heard discussing how airing Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell increased viewership. The unfounded conspiracy claims claiming Dominion had rigged the 2020 election by flipping millions of votes were being promoted at the time by Powell, Giuliani, and broadcaster Lou Dobbs.

“Any day with Rudy and Sidney is guaranteed gold!” the Dobbs producer's email read.

Another Dobbs producer stated in an email that "we really need Rudy or Sidney to keep this alive."

Read next: Fox News subject to defamation law suit over voting machines