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    Former Fox News reporter says in lawsuit he was fired after challenging Jan. 6 coverage

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1303 Views
    Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump stand on vehicles and the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Jason Donner, a former Fox News producer says in a lawsuit filed Monday, Nov. 13, 2023, he was targeted and fired for pushing back against false claims about the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Donner said he was part of a “purge” of employees who refused to report information that would please Trump and his supporters. Donner was inside the Capitol during the riot and pressed his complaints about the networks coverage for months(AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)

    By Lindsay Whitehurst

    WASHINGTON (AP) --

    A former Fox News reporter says in a lawsuit he was targeted and fired for pushing back against false claims about the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

    In the suit filed in federal court Monday, producer Jason Donner said he was part of a "purge" of employees who refused to only report information that would "appease" former President Donald Trump and his supporters.

    Donner was inside the Capitol when the mob of Trump supporters breached the building. When he heard Fox News reporting that rioters were "peaceful" and "severely disappointed," he called the control room, using expletives as he said, "you're gonna get us all killed," the suit states.

    A spokeswoman for Fox News did not immediately return an email message seeking comment on the lawsuit.

    Donner also debunked Tucker Carlson's "Patriot Purge," a program on the Fox Nation streaming service that argued Jan. 6 was used as a pretext for persecution of conservative Americans.

    Fox managers, though, were focused on wooing viewers who supported Trump, and as Donner pressed his complaints he was was eventually targeted by a manager who accused him of being irresponsible for calling in sick once while he was recovering from a COVID-19 vaccine, the lawsuit claimed. He was fired in 2022.

    A longtime Republican who affiliated with Democrats more recently, Donner said he was illegally discriminated and retaliated against because of his political views. He is seeking unspecific damages.

    The lawsuit was first filed in Washington's Superior Court Sept. 27 and subsequently moved to federal court.

    Fox also faced a lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems and paid nearly $800 million this year to settle the case alleging that Fox knowingly promoted false conspiracy theories about the security of its voting machines. It is also facing a suit from a second voting-machine company.

    The network also paid $12 million to settle with Abby Grossberg, another former producer who claimed that she faced a discriminatory workplace and that the network coerced her into giving false or misleading testimony in the Dominion suit.

    A former Trump supporter who became the center of a conspiracy theory about Jan. 6 has also sued the network, claiming the network made him a scapegoat for the riot.

    Tags:Fox NewsinsurrectionJason DonnerTucker Carlson



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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