Diana Falzone ‘had obtained proof’ of alleged affair but was told: ‘Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go’
Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel knew about Donald Trump’s illegal hush money payment to a pornographic film actor ahead of the 2016 election but killed the story because the media mogul wanted him to win, it was reported on Monday.
The Fox journalist Diana Falzone “had obtained proof” of Trump’s alleged extramarital affair with Stormy Daniels, as well as emails that showed his lawyer, Michael Cohen, planned to buy her silence through a non-disclosure agreement, according to the New Yorker.
But the report, a potentially huge scandal that could have damaged Trump at the polls, never saw the light of day. The Fox News executive Ken LaCorte reportedly told Falzone: “Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go,” the New Yorker article says.
The magazine adds that LaCorte denied the comment, but one of Falzone’s colleagues confirmed having heard the account. Falzone was later demoted, sued Fox and reached a settlement that includes a non-disclosure agreement preventing her from speaking about the matter.
The symbiotic relationship between Trump’s White House and America’s most watched cable news network has become well established, with one amplifying the message of the other, for example by fanning fears of illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border. The president is a frequent Fox News viewer, often live-tweeting his reactions to the channel during his so-called “executive time”, and he has given it more than 40 interviews (compared with none for CNN).
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