Images of Fox News personalities, from left, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Maria Bartiromo, Stuart Varney, Neil Cavuto and Charles Payne appear outside News Corporation headquarters in New York on July 31, 2021. (Ted Shaffrey, Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

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In recent weeks, Fox News has come under increased scrutiny concerning its coverage of the 2020 election because some of its hosts questioned the integrity of the voting process. In fact, under deposition, Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch said he wished his network had been "stronger in denouncing" many of the theories floated by Fox News commentators in the days after the election.

Although I understand Murdoch's concerns, his network did a superb job documenting the shady side of one of the most controversial elections in modern history.

In the fall of 2020, under the guise of the pandemic, several governors (of primarily blue states) unilaterally decided that in-person voting was too risky. So, they altered the voting process and greenlighted the sending of millions of ballots through the mail based on outdated, error-ridden voter rolls.

Many of Fox News' most prominent personalities took issue with this, explaining that the mass mailing of ballots could likely lead to voter fraud. They also highlighted how many states, including Nevada, abandoned signature verification and other processes meant to ensure that vote tallying was as legitimate as possible.

This was not peddling conspiracy theories or falsehoods; it was simply pointing out that mass mail-in voting on the scale perpetuated in the 2020 election was abnormal and could have resulted in voter fraud.

Another so-called conspiracy theory Fox News commentators supposedly disseminated was the questioning of Dominion voting machines, which is why Murdoch was recently deposed in a defamation lawsuit Dominion is pressing. Yet, media personalities constantly question the status quo; that is their modus operandi. If opinion purveyors are now held liable for asking questions, you can kiss goodbye any semblance of journalism that still exists.

This is a very significant development because, if Fox News commentators are now held to this standard, then every "journalist" who pushed the Russia collusion hoax (which has been debunked) or labeled the Hunter Biden laptop story as fake should also be held to the same standard.

Fox News took a measured approach concerning its 2020 election coverage. On election night, the network did not call races in Georgia, Michigan or Wisconsin, despite President Donald Trump's insistence that he had won those states.

Even in the days after Election Day, Fox News' "decision desk" steadfastly refused to call many of the states in question for Trump because the votes were still being tallied. For those who don't remember clearly, countless theories were being floated by media personalities across the board. In other words, questioning the integrity of the election in those days was the norm; it was not unique to Fox News.

And, speaking of mainstream media outlets throwing shade on an election, need I remind Americans that the mainstream media was guilty of doing just this in 2000, 2004 and 2016?

Conveniently, it seems every time a Republican appears to win a presidential election, the mainstream media is free to push conspiracy theories. However, when the shoe is on the other foot, Fox News is pilloried for even considering that the 2020 election was not entirely on the up and up.

Since 2016, a pattern has emerged wherein the mainstream media has free rein to dabble in what many call "fake news." On several occasions, these outlets have been 100% wrong and spread lies that have been totally exposed. Yet, there has been little to no accountability for their transgressions.

Going forward, media outlets must refrain from jumping to conclusions during a messy election. It would be nice if the mainstream media were not so quick to cast aspersions on the one major news network that does not toe the liberal line. However, I think it is naïve to believe that we should expect this about-face anytime soon.

In the meantime, with another presidential election looming it would behoove the mainstream media to remain as objective as possible.

And, yes, that also includes Fox News.

Chris Talgo is the editorial director at the Heartland Institute. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.