Top Democrats urge Fox News to stop contesting Biden election win

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Top Democratic lawmakers, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, urged on Wednesday the leadership of Fox Corporation to stop calling into question US President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential race.

"We demand that you direct Tucker Carlson and other hosts of your network to stop spreading false election narratives and admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior," Schumer and Jeffries wrote in a letter.

The two lawmakers said the assertions that former US President Donald Trump actually won the 2020 race are "grave propaganda".

"This sets a dangerous precedent that ignores basic journalistic fact-checking principles and public accountability," the letter read.

The lawmakers also called on Fox News to stop disseminating information, which they considered as lies, as well as "other conspiracy theories."

Excerpts of a deposition revealed on Monday that Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch admitted that some Fox News hosts declared public approval of former US President Donald Trump and his allies' false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that he didn’t intervene to prevent them from promoting the allegations.

Dominion Voting Systems Corporation has filed a defamation lawsuit against the cable news organization based on the allegations and the way the firm handled them. 

The recently uncovered documents include excerpts from a deposition in which Murdoch was asked about whether he knew that Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro, Sean Hannity, and Maria Bartiromo, commentators from the network, at times endorsed the false election allegations.

"Yes. They endorsed," was Murdoch's answer.

Read more: Murdoch calls Trump election claims, top advisors 'crazy' in emails