Report reveals extent of Trump-Fox News collusion: ‘Murdoch wants Trump to win’

Donald Trump’s alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels could have first been reported by Fox News during the 2016 election — possibly derailing his shot at the presidency — had the network’s leadership not wanted him to win the White House.

The report, entitled “The Making of the Fox News White House” by journalist Jane Mayer and published in The New Yorker on Monday, looks at the relationship between the president and his favourite news outlet from the beginning of his campaign onward.

Ms Mayer added new revelations to previous claims made by FoxNews.com reporter Diana Falzone, who previously sued the outlet for gender discrimination. Ms Falzone has claimed a story she reported in 2016 about Mr Trump’s alleged affair with the porn star and resulting illegal hush-money payments made thereafter was never published by Fox News.

In her report, Ms Mayer claimed the reported decision to withhold the story came from the very top, suggesting billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch opposed unfavourable coverage of Mr Trump’s candidacy. “Good reporting, kiddo,” she says Ken LaCorte — a senior manager at Fox News for almost two decades — told the reporter. “But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win.”

“So just let it go,” he added.

A spokesperson for Fox News refuted several of the allegations made in Ms Mayer’s report.

Speaking to The Independent the organisation pointed to previous denials made by Megyn Kelly, who denied questions were shared with the Trump campaign ahead of a GOP debate, as well as claims from the website’s former editor in chief that the report on hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels was not allowed to be published in 2016.

At the time, former Fox News digital editor-in-chief Noah Kotch claimed the story was not published because editors were not able to confirm its veracity.

“Like many other outlets, we were working to report the story of Stephanie Clifford’s account in October 2016 about then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump and a possible payment by Trump lawyer Michael Cohen,” he said in a statement. “In doing our due diligence, we were unable to verify all of the facts and publish a story.”

Ms Mayer reported on Monday that Ms Falzone continued investigating the hush-money claims throughout the election, eventually discovering the apparent partnership between Mr Trump and the National Enquirer, which had reportedly been conducting “catch and kill” operations to silence a number of negative allegations against the president.

The Wall Street Journal eventually broke the story of Mr Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen arranging the hush-money payments nearly a year into his presidency.

Ms Falzone now works at Bold TV. She was demoted at Fox News in 2017 after her report on Mr Trump’s alleged affair was withheld from the site. Ms Mayer reported the journalist signed a non-disclosure agreement after settling her lawsuit out of court.