Rupert Murdoch’s admission was startling.

During a January deposition, the media mogul acknowledged that he knew former President Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election were false, but he did not intervene to stop Fox News hosts and conspiracy-spinning guests from giving the assertions oxygen — even after the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage on the U.S. Capitol, which left five people dead.

Court testimony and internal emails — which have become evidence in a $1.6-billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News by software and voting machine supplier Dominion Voting Systems — exposed a campaign by Murdoch, his son Lachlan and other key Fox News figures to keep Trump-loving viewers and advertisers in the fold. The network and its stars, including Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity, were spooked by dipping ratings after the election and feared their audience might switch to other right-wing networks.