Rupert Murdoch, a kingmaker in GOP politics, enriched himself as he poisoned America Analysis by Oliver Darcy, CNN Published Fri September 22, 2023 CNN — https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/22/media/rupert-murdoch-reliable-sources/index.html Rupert Murdoch’s reign over the insidious right-wing media kingdom he forged into existence over a decades-long career is coming to a close. The 92-year-old right-wing media mogul, who announced Thursday that he will step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corporation, will leave behind a stain that cannot be erased and will far outlive the time he spent on the throne of his global media empire. Through a hazardous cocktail of mis- and disinformation, conspiracy theories, and outright propaganda, Murdoch profited off of fear and division with little apparent regard for warping the public discourse, disfiguring American politics, and imperiling Western democracy. With his rise to kingmaker in Republican politics and an unflinching eye for infusing news and hyperbole once only found on talk radio, Murdoch tapped into the fears and fantasies of his hungry audience, many of whom were eager to hear their own thoughts fed back to them and now remain detached from reality. Left in his wake is a deeply polarized society squabbling over culture wars and plagued with mistrust and dysfunction, pulled further to the right by his mouthpieces that have used their platforms to twist and manipulate the truth, leaving the public and its political leaders with a lost sense of trust. In his letter to staffers announcing his exit Thursday, Murdoch attempted to portray himself as a gladiator who fought “the battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought.” Sounding like one of the Fox News pundits on his payroll, Murdoch bashed the “elites” who he portrayed as having “open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class.” Rupert Murdoch steps down as Fox and News Corp. chairman, sending shockwaves through media and politics “Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth,” Murdoch wrote, without any sense of irony. Murdoch, himself a billionaire many times over who has spent his life rubbing shoulders with society’s most elite members, must have known that deep down in his bones he was offering up a fitting description of himself — a man whose companies printed money through the peddling of outrageous narratives aimed at satisfying the thirst of his tragically duped audience. Murdoch, who personally took great precaution during the pandemic and was later one of the world’s first recipients of the Covid-19 vaccine, stood by silently as he handsomely paid his roster of right-wing commentators who promoted lies about the virus and sewed conspiracy theories about the life-saving jabs. The cost of those lies, which was paid in the form of actual human lives who turned to the outlet they entrusted with their own health decisions, might never be fully known, but it was unquestionably too high. The cost, however, of the election lies that Murdoch’s Fox News spread to protect Donald Trump is more easily measurable, courtesy of the mammoth defamation lawsuits brought by voting technology companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Murdoch, who behind the scenes rejected the unhinged rhetoric that was broadcast on his air, paid Dominion a historic $787.5 million to settle and avert a jury trial earlier this year. Fox News still faces a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic. The question coursing through media circles in the wake of Murdoch’s stunning announcement is: Why now? Why did he decide that Thursday, September 21, 2023, would be the day to announce he would be stepping down and vacating the throne? Murdoch is a strategic thinker and ruthless businessman, who would have given the timing of his exit immense thought. Is the announcement an indication that Murdoch is attempting to further cement his son, Lachlan, as his successor? Does he believe that naming Lachlan as chairman of both of his companies before his death, whenever that might be, will make it more difficult for his other children to overthrow him upon his passing? Perhaps Murdoch believes that if he seats Lachlan on the throne and places the crown atop his head, it will eliminate — or at least shrink — the power vacuum that his death is surely to spawn. Or perhaps there is something else at play. Murdoch said in his note that he is in “robust health.” But he is 92, after all, and has slowed down in recent years. The other question is: How will this transition impact the organization of Murdoch’s companies? Murdoch stressed that Lachlan shares his ideological worldview. But the executive ranks of Fox and News Corporations are comprised of Murdoch’s own lifelong, loyal lieutenants. Will Lachlan make some changes? Will he empower a new generation? And the biggest question of all: Does Murdoch have some additional surprises left up his sleeve? Are there more shoes to drop? We will see.
Rupert Murdoch to marry Russian girlfriend Sam Buckingham-Jones Media and marketing reporter Mar 8, 2024 Sydney | Three days before his 93rd birthday, Rupert Murdoch has announced he is engaged – again. The former Fox and News Corp chairman plans to marry his girlfriend, Elena Zhukova, a spokesman confirmed on Thursday (Friday AEDT). The wedding would be held in June in California at Mr Murdoch’s vineyard and estate, Moraga, the spokesman said. Invitations have already been sent out. Rupert Murdoch, 92, and friend Elena Zhukova on a recent trip to Greece. The New York Times, which first reported the news – under the headline “Yep, he did it again” – said Ms Zhukova, who is from Moscow, is 67. She is a retired molecular biologist whom Mr Murdoch began dating in the northern hemisphere summer. Ms Zhukova is the mother of Dasha Zhukova, who was married to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich until 2018. It has previously been reported that Ms Zhukova was introduced to Mr Murdoch by the media mogul’s ex-wife, Wendi Deng. He had been seen with Ms Zhukova in December, travelling via his private jet with crates of his family vineyard’s Moraga Estate wine. Mr Murdoch stepped down from his roles at Fox and News Corp in September last year, ending a seven-decade career that began at his father’s Australian newspaper business and culminated in one of the most influential media empires. He remained in an emeritus role at the two global companies as his son Lachlan took over the reins. Rupert Murdoch is joined by Elena Zhukova in Los Angeles in November last year. He was recently interviewed at length by Sky News Australia chief Paul Whittaker for an extended show that was to air on the network soon. But it has been pulled, sources with knowledge of the interviews say, and it is unclear whether it will air. There have been persistent rumours about Mr Murdoch’s health, which escalated when the 60th anniversary dinner for The Australian newspaper was postponed from February until July. It is now possible Mr Murdoch will make the trip to Australia for the event this year – and bring his new wife. Mr Murdoch has been married four times before, most recently to Jerry Hall, the former model and ex-wife of Mick Jagger. That ended in 2022. Early last year, he was engaged to retired dental hygienist and conservative presenter Ann Lesley Smith, but that ended after about two weeks. Mr Murdoch’s new marriage would be unlikely to affect the future of the company, which is effectively controlled through a family trust whose shares belong to him and his four eldest children – one with his first wife, Patricia Booker, the other three with his second wife, Anna Murdoch Mann. Mr Murdoch, and the companies he founded, are still dealing with the fallout from Fox News’s coverage of the 2020 US election. In late November, Mr Murdoch was deposed as part of a $US2.7 billion ($4 billion) defamation lawsuit filed against Fox by the voting technology company Smartmatic. Mr Murdoch also underwent a brutal under-oath grilling by lawyers for the voting technology company Dominion, though he avoided taking the stand when his company reached a settlement for $US787.5 million. Fox’s lawyers had argued in the Dominion case that Mr Murdoch and other executives should not be forced to testify in the case due to “hardships”, but the judge said that Mr Murdoch might be compelled to do so anyway. Mr Murdoch will turn 93 on March 11. With Reuters
People who believe it was Murdoch that galvanized the poor white voters in the US have never been to the deep South. Those people still don't believe they lost the civil war. I used to go to the South all the time for work and they are very different in mindset to the elite liberals I used to work with in Silicon Valley. The southerners have a totally different outlook on the world versus city liberals here in the US. There is simply no reconciliation between the two cultures. I doubt liberal journalists from Australia understand anything about these people. Journalists in this country wouldn't demean themselves to actually spend time in the south, they are too busy calling them MAGAtards & trying to convince that poor whites are the"Most privileged class in history." Now that's a joke.
Print newspapers have 15 years left, at best, says Rupert Murdoch By Calum Jaspan July 16, 2024 https://www.smh.com.au/business/com...best-says-rupert-murdoch-20240715-p5jtx1.html Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has declared print newspapers have as little as 15 years left, in a long-awaited interview on Sky News Australia, which went off-air for an hour ahead of the broadcast because of technical difficulties. “Fifteen years, with a lot of luck,” Murdoch, chairman emeritus of News Corp and founder of The Australian, said in a documentary commemorating the 60th anniversary of the newspaper. The comment came in response to a question asked by Sky Australia boss Paul Whittaker on how long printed newspapers had before they were no longer viable. Sky chief Paul Whittaker interviewed News Corp chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch in a one-hour special.Credit: Sky News Australia Airing at 8pm on Monday, the documentary, which was heavily marketed by Sky News, was lucky to go to air after a “hardware failure” took the network offline for an hour earlier in the evening during the documentary’s host Chris Kenny’s nightly show. “Third-party provider MediaHub, which manages the playout services for Sky News, suffered a hardware failure that impacted the Sky News channel. The technical issue was investigated and resolved in just over an hour,” a Sky News Australia spokesperson said. “We apologise to our viewers for the inconvenience, with catch-up episodes to be made available to all subscribers.” The issue caused some nervousness at Sky’s Macquarie Park headquarters ahead of the documentary, a source with knowledge of the evening’s events said, speaking on condition of anonymity. After seven decades at the helm of Fox and News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch is retiring. The retrospective took viewers through the history of The Australian, including Murdoch’s heavy involvement in its early years, his critical notes to staff, as well as celebrating its editors, columnists and reporters over the six decades. The media baron also used the documentary to praise several politicians, most notably former prime minister John Howard, who he called Australia’s most transformative leader, and former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who famously helped Murdoch further his business interests in the United Kingdom. Murdoch also took a swipe at notable critic Malcolm Turnbull, who is leading the campaign for a royal commission into Murdoch’s Australian media empire. “Malcolm’s nuts, and he’s paranoid,” Murdoch said. “He didn’t like the fact that we supported Tony Abbott versus him. That’s all.” Across the hour-long documentary, Murdoch also said he did not believe America will ultimately defend Taiwan from a Chinese attack, and admitted to being a climate change sceptic. “I’m not a climate denier. I might be a sceptic of some of the things that are said. But you’re going to have blackout,” he said on the push to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. “The cost of living will go up all over the world.” Murdoch also labelled artificial intelligence “a force for good” in his comments, which were recorded before News Corp signed a five-year $US250 million ($368.7 million) content deal with OpenAI. “AI distributes [content] brilliantly. But if they want access to it, they’re going to have to pay, or they’ll put us out of business.”
Murdoch is a great business person. He took Disney to the cleaners when the y overpaid for Fox properties. I mean Disney still hasn't recovered from that ridiculous price they paid. He understood that trying to create your own streaming network was a fool's errand. Better to just rent your properties or sell them to some suckers. He was right, all the majors are in trouble & only Netflix has thrived.
A friend of mine's 82 yo mother slipped and hit her head last week (had to go to the ER) bending over to pick up her newspaper. The first thing I thought... who the hell still gets newspapers delivered(?). She is 82 though, god love her; old habits die hard I guess.
Hugh Grant Calls for New Police Investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers by Andy Lalwani Jan 24, 2025 https://whatstrending.com/hugh-gran...n-into-rupert-murdochs-news-group-newspapers/ Photo: ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE / Shutterstock Hugh Grant is urging U.K. authorities to reopen a criminal investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) following recent revelations about phone hacking at The Sun. Grant, who himself settled with NGN in 2024, believes the case is far from over, despite Prince Harry’s landmark settlement with the company, which included admissions of guilt related to phone hacking. Grant made his comments during an interview on BBC Radio 4, where he expressed concerns that NGN had used financial and legal tactics to avoid accountability. “The job is not done by any means,” Grant said, referencing the ongoing issues with phone hacking and unlawful surveillance. He added that NGN had “gamed” the civil courts to prevent proper scrutiny of its practices. The actor, who has long been an outspoken critic of the media’s use of unethical tactics, accused NGN of spending significant resources to suppress legal challenges. “They’ve spent £1 billion to make sure these things are never looked at in court… and you don’t get proper judicial findings,” Grant said. “I think what they’re terrified of is that those findings would trigger a new criminal inquiry.” Grant, whose own legal battles against The Sun included accusations of phone tapping and burglary, settled his case in 2024. He claimed that the newspaper had used private investigators to monitor his personal life, but ultimately decided to settle because pursuing the case could have left him with a hefty bill, even if he won. NGN denied the allegations and maintained that the settlement was reached “without admission of liability.” Despite the settlement, Grant remains adamant that a criminal investigation is necessary. He pointed out that many of the key figures at The Sun during the period of the phone hacking scandal are still in influential positions within the company. “A lot of the foot soldiers for those newspapers have now come over to our side… to say this is awful,” Grant said. “We’ve been punished, we’ve been to prison, we’ve paid fines, we’ve lost our jobs. But the people who commanded all this, they’re still there.” Grant’s call for a renewed investigation into NGN echoes broader concerns from other public figures. Former Labour MP Tom Watson, who also reached a settlement with NGN, announced that his legal team would be submitting a dossier to the U.K. Metropolitan Police. However, a spokesperson for the force told the BBC that there are no active investigations related to the matter at present. “We await any correspondence from the parties involved, which we will respond to in due course,” the spokesperson said. Earlier this week, Prince Harry and NGN reached a settlement worth more than $10 million. The deal included an apology from the company, which admitted, for the first time, to criminal activity at The Sun. However, NGN distanced itself from the wrongdoing, claiming that the phone tapping and surveillance were carried out by “private investigators, not journalists” working at the newspaper. In a statement to Variety, Mark Rowley, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, addressed the ongoing controversy, noting that much of the material in Prince Harry’s civil litigation came from earlier investigations into phone hacking and illegal surveillance at Murdoch’s newspapers. “There were many prosecutions, those investigations were closed. If they send us a bunch of material, we’ll reflect on that and make our judgments,” Rowley said. Grant’s remarks on Radio 4 have sparked a fresh round of public debate, including a war of words with media personality Piers Morgan. Morgan, who was himself involved in the phone hacking scandal during his tenure as editor of The Mirror, took to social media to accuse Grant of hypocrisy. On X, Morgan wrote that Grant had “taken many millions of pounds from Rupert Murdoch to make movies for him.” Grant quickly responded, refuting Morgan’s accusation. “I last worked for a Murdoch-owned company in 1994, long before I knew anything about his papers’ methods,” Grant wrote. He also pointed out that since then, he had “turned down every single job offer emanating from a Murdoch-owned company.” Morgan, undeterred, responded by pointing out that Florence Foster Jenkins, a film in which Grant starred, had been distributed in the U.K. by 20th Century Fox, which was owned by Murdoch at the time. Morgan also posted an infamous mugshot of Grant from his 1995 arrest in Los Angeles, further fueling the online back-and-forth. The renewed calls for a criminal investigation into Murdoch’s newspapers highlight ongoing concerns about media ethics and accountability. While Grant, Prince Harry, and others have reached settlements in their legal battles, the question of whether justice has truly been served remains a contentious issue. As the public debate continues, many are left wondering whether the authorities will take further action in what has become one of the most high-profile media scandals in recent history.
Albanese criticises Grace Tame for her ‘F--- Murdoch’ T-shirt By Michelle Griffin and Millie Muroi January 27, 2025 https://www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...or-her-f-murdoch-t-shirt-20250127-p5l7gf.html Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has criticised former Australian of the Year Grace Tame for attending a function at The Lodge wearing a T-shirt with the words “F--- Murdoch” on the front, saying her protest took focus away from the event held to honour past Australians of the Year and this year’s finalists. Pressed by ABC Radio Perth about his response to the abuse activist’s choice to wear an obscenity on her top to the Australia Day eve event, Albanese said: “I held a function. It is something that, in my view, took away from the people who were there, and my focus was simply on that.” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Jodie Haydon with former Australian of the Year Grace Tame at The Lodge on Saturday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen Asked again at a press conference in Perth why he didn’t respond to Tame’s shirt, Albanese said there were 60 people in the queue to be greeted. “People were just there, one by one, rolling through, being welcomed. And [Tame’s shirt] was clearly designed to get attention. I don’t intend to add to that attention because I do think that it takes away from what the day should be about, which is the amazing people who were nominated as Australians of the Year.” Albanese defended his decision to pose for the photo. Pushed further on whether he agreed with the sentiment of the shirt, Albanese said, “I clearly disagree. I want debate to be respectful … and that’s a choice that she made. People are allowed to express themselves, but I thought it was disrespectful of the event and of the people who that event was primarily for.” Albanese paid tribute to the newly announced Australian of the Year, former champion AFL player and coach Neale Daniher, who was awarded for his work championing research for a cure for motor neurone disease after he was diagnosed with the degenerative condition a decade ago. On Saturday, the prime minister and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, made no mention of the T-shirt when Tame lined up to shake his hand alongside 15 other former Australians of the Year and current state honourees, although the ABC reported that Albanese asked Tame: “Reliving memories?” “Yeah, reliving some trauma, maybe,” Tame was heard to respond, promoting polite laughter from Albanese and Haydon. On Saturday, Tame said she wore the T-shirt to the function because “it’s a great shirt and says it all, doesn’t it?” “If we want to dismantle the concentration of morbid wealth that undemocratically rules the world and really makes the major political decisions that affect the everyday person; if we want climate action and if we want justice, if we want truth, I think it’s probably a good place to start. “If you want to get a few birds with one giant, ugly stone, this is it.” Asked for her message to News Corp mogul Rupert Murdoch, she said: “You’ve ruined the world.” It is not the first time Tame has used the annual function to make a statement. In 2022, pictures of a stony-faced Tame – the then-outgoing Australian of the Year – standing next to then-prime minister Scott Morrison made headlines. Tame had criticised Morrison throughout her time in the role for not doing enough to stamp out sexual harassment in Parliament House after a series of sexual assault claims. At the time, Tame did not meet Morrison’s gaze as she shook his hand, posing for pictures with the former prime minister and his wife, Jenny, without smiling.