Murdoch personally approved calling Arizona for Biden in decision that infuriated Trump, report says

The owner of Fox News reportedly intentionally kept election coverage separate from the network’s news coverage so he could maintain control over its output

Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch reportedly personally approved the network announcing that Donald Trump had lost Arizona on election night.

The incident is detailed in Michael Wolff's new book, Landslide, about the last days of the Trump administration.

The Daily Beast obtained an advanced copy of the book and reported on the election night decision approved by Mr Murdoch that signalled the end of Mr Trump's administration.

Wolff writes that Fox News' CEO Lachlan Murdoch – operating with his father, Rupert's, support – made the decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night. It was the first of the major cable television networks to do so.

The Daily Beast notes in its reporting that Wolff does not generally cite his sources in his books.

The author claims that the Murdochs were in direct control of the network's election coverage that night, choosing to run the election desk separately from the news desk in order to avoid conflicts with the news-side's editorial independence.

"Certainly, there was every reason, if you wanted a reason to delay the Arizona call, to yet forestall it and still have no fear of being preempted by anyone else," Wolff wrote. "Lachlan got his father on the phone to ask if he wanted to make the early call. His father, with signature grunt, assented, adding: 'F*** him.'"

Fox News issued a statement Friday denying Mr Wolff’s account.

“This account is completely false. Arnon Mishkin, who leads the Fox News Decision Desk made the Arizona call on election night and FOX News Media President Jay Wallace was then called in the control room,” the statement said. “Any other version of the story is wildly inaccurate.”

The decision to call Arizona for Mr Biden also marked the beginning of the MAGA revolt against Fox News.

Trump supporters were furious the day before the election when the network projected that Arizona would be won by Mr Biden, and were even more furious on election night when they called the state against Mr Trump.

That began the exodus of MAGA supporters to places like Newsmax and One America News Network, which are widely seen as being propaganda outlets for Mr Trump and his allies.

Despite the exodus, Fox News has rebounded and is again the top rated major broadcast news network.

The Washington Post reported that on election night, Fox News host Bret Baier called on the election desk director, Arnon Mishkin, to explain on-air why Arizona had been called for Mr Biden.

Mishkin, knowing that Fox's audience was not going to be happy with the decision, apologised but said there was no way Mr Trump could make up the vote disparity to win back the state.

"I'm sorry we're not wrong in this particular case," Mishkin said. Baier assured him he did not need to apologise.

Mishkin, a registered Democrat who contracts for Fox News, became a minor villain in Trump-world, particularly in the contentious days immediately following the election, as some blamed him for throwing the state to Trump and others blamed the network for hiring a Democrat in the first place.

As election data would later show, Mishkin was correct to call the state for Mr Biden.

Some Republicans in Arizona have still not given up on the dream that Mr Trump actually won the state. Though the election was more than half a year ago, a group of Republican lawmakers pushed for a third-party recount in Maricopa County – Arizona's largest and most Democratic county – to determine if any votes were fraudulent.

The recount was highly partisan – the CEO of the company conducting the recount is an outspoken Trump supporter and election conspiracy theorist – and its results completely non-binding.