FACT BRIEF

Did an anonymous source allege Fox News delayed calling Nevada for Joe Biden in the 2020 election?

Friday, March 10, 2023

By Austin Tannenbaum

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YES

Fox News allegedly delayed calling Nevada for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election for 14 hours after the network’s system projected Biden as the winner, according to communications obtained by The New York Times. The source for these communications is publicly anonymous, but is privately known to the reporter and an editor.

The Times says it agrees to the condition of anonymity rarely, when the information is in the public interest and a source’s career, freedom or life is at risk.

Using a new election-projection system that led Fox to call Arizona for Biden on election night before other major news outlets, Fox’s Decision Desk internally projected on Friday, Nov. 6, 2022, that Biden had won Nevada. Network president Jay Wallace declined to immediately air the result, which would have given Biden the election, according to the Times.

Fox called the race for Biden around 11:40 a.m. the next day: 16 minutes after the first network, CNN, did.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

New York Times Why does The New York Times use anonymous sources?

New York Times Inside the Panic at Fox News After the 2020 Election

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