Lachlan Murdoch

Trump Takes Credit for Rupert Murdoch Retiring, then Takes Aim at ‘Democrat’ Mitch McConnell

Posted by on September 22, 2023 at 2:02 pm. 3 Comments :

This week the Mediaverse was startled by the news that Rupert Murdoch, Master of Fox News and myriad other right-wing propaganda, has retired. While this was an unexpected announcement, it is not particularly earthshattering. Murdoch had previously put his son Lachlan in charge and was not making day to day decisions.

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Donald Trump, Wah

However, the biggest beneficiary of Murdoch’s ultra-conservative Fox News Channel in recent years has undoubtedly been Donald Trump. They featured him on the air, covered his cult rallies, defended every criticism, and attacked his political opponents. For all intents and purposes, they had become the “Trump News Network.” And what did they get for it?

SEE THIS: Trump Viciously Attacks Fox News, the Network He Says is ‘Dead, Totally Fake, Unwatchable’

After having been the recipient of perpetual Trump-fluffing from the moment he descended on his golden escalator, Trump is now somewhat less than grateful. It took him 24 hours to even mention the retirement of Murdoch. And when he did so, he neither thanked nor praised Old Rupe. Instead, he took a backhanded slap by passively-aggressively taking credit for Murdoch stepping down…

“Many people are saying that,’You forced Rupert Murdoch into retirement!’ I do not believe this is so, but while we’re at it, how about getting rid of ‘Democrat’ Mitch McConnell, who gives the Radical Left Lunatics, together with his small band of automatic ‘yes’ votes, EVERYTHING they want. There is ZERO Republican Leadership in the United States Senate. MAGA!!!”

Don’t be fooled by Trump claiming that he doesn’t believe that he “forced Rupert Murdoch into retirement.” His cliché assertion that “Many people are saying…” is his way of pretending that it’s others – always unidentified – not him, who are giving him the credit that he so plainly doesn’t deserve.

There are other, better reasons for Murdoch retiring. For starters, he is 92 years old and has had some recent health problems. He is also likely to be seeking relief from all of the legal tribulations of Fox News. They just agreed to a 3/4 of billion dollar defamation lawsuit settlement, and more lawsuits are pending. Now he can dump all of that in Lachlan’s lap and set sail on his yacht.

SEE ALSO: With Lawsuits, Lost Hosts, and Lying Pundits, the Future of Fox News Has Never Been Weaker

Don’t expect much change at Fox News under Lachlan’s reign. He is at least as conservative as his father. However, when Rupert passes on, his voting shares in the corporation will likely be distributed among his four eldest children. And since James and Elizabeth are more left-leaning, their combined shares could be enough to oust Lachlan and take over.

Trump’s ungrateful neglect of Murdoch was made worse by his exploiting the opportunity to lash out at a different foe. Trump has been bashing Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell for several years. And now he is openly calling for him to retire. Which isn’t much of a stretch considering McConnell’s recent cognitive glitches.

However, Trump goes further with an utterly deranged description of McConnell as a “Democrat” who “gives the Radical Left Lunatics…EVERYTHING they want.” This is the same McConnell whose knee-jerk conservativism delivered three Supreme Court justices for Trump. Then Trump closes by insulting the rest of his congressional confederates as providing “ZERO Republican Leadership in the United States Senate.” That includes reliable Trump toadies such as Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Tommy Tuberville.

All of this is further evidence of how deeply disturbed Trump is and how rapidly his decline is accelerating. He can’t distinguish between rational Democrats and extremist Republicans. He is obsessed with even the slightest bit of perceived criticism, and he has forsaken his most adamant admirers at Fox News. He is becoming more and more isolated in his own anxieties and fantastical delusions. And yet, he remains the leading candidate for the Republication nomination for president. Which tells you all you need to know about the Republican Party, Trump, and Fox News.

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FOX News FINALLY Reports on the Dominion Lawsuit and is Predictably Dishonest and Biased

Posted by on March 14, 2023 at 11:44 am. 2 Comments :

The biggest media story of the year – or even the century – is the billion dollar defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting systems against Fox News. Recent disclosures in court filings have unmasked just how brazenly Fox News has deceived their viewers by repeatedly lying on air about matters for which they privately held diametrically opposing views.

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Fox News, Howard Kurtz

For weeks following the Dominion filings, Fox News refused to even bring up the subject of the lawsuit. Then their chief media correspondent, Howard Kurtz, addressed it briefly on his Sunday program, MediaBuzz. However, his only comments were to tell his audience that he was not going to be reporting on the lawsuit because he had been forbidden to by Fox editors and executives.

MORE HERE: BANNED ON FOX NEWS: The Network Prohibits Any Reporting on the $1.6 Billion Dominion Lawsuit

Apparently that censorious edict has been revoked and Kurtz was given some sort of conditional permission to cover the story. So he did so in the most Fox-ish manner possible. Which means that he was overtly dishonest in his starkly biased presentation that looked like it was written by the Fox News PR department. What follows are some of the lowlights of Kurtz’s whitewashing coverage (video below).

Kurtz began by defending the indefensible saying that “there is a crucial First Amendment argument here involving the coverage of unsubstantiated claims of 2020 election fraud by Donald Trump and his allies.” That’s patently false. The First Amendment prohibits Congress from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Dominion is not Congress. Furthermore, Dominion is not seeking to censor Fox News. They are suing for damages due to Fox’s purposeful and repeated defamation, which is not protected by the First Amendment.

Kurtz then quotes from a Fox News statement saying that “Dominion has been caught red-handed using more distortions and misinformation in their PR campaign to smear Fox News and trample on free speech and freedom of the press.” Nothing in that statement is true. Dominion was not “caught red-handed,” and Kurtz doesn’t bother to substantiate any of its charges of “distortions and misinformation.” Yet somehow, Kurtz asserts that his framing of the “facts” will be fair to both sides…

“Now I’m going to give you both sides, but let me say this: Fox’s critics and competitors are denouncing the network, and many of them are rooting not just for Fox to lose the suit, but to be wiped out as a company because they can’t stand the mostly conservative view of a relative handful of opinion hosts”

Notice that Kurtz immediately contradicts his own assertion to give both sides. The criticism of competitors is completely irrelevant to the misconduct that Fox has been engaging in. If Fox News were a legitimate news enterprise, they would tell the truth regardless of what their competitors are saying. And the claim that only “a relative handful of opinion hosts” are disgorging conservative views is pure fiction. Fox’s alleged “journalists” (i.e. Brett Baier) were shown to be just as dishonest as Sean Hannity in the Dominion filings. Even so, Fox’s opinion hosts are the highest rated personalities on the network, so their lies carry more weight than unknown field reporters.

Kurtz went on to soft-pedal Fox’s deceit saying that “The heart of dominion’s suit is a gap” between what hosts said on the air and what they said privately among each other. Referring to Fox’s outright lying as merely a “gap” is like referring to the Grand Canyon as a pothole. Kurtz is deliberately underplaying the severity of Fox’s corruption. And he spent the remainder of his remarks spewing defenses for it. For instance, Kurtz said that…

“There was, to be sure, straight reporting by the news division, which also caused some friction, but the fact that some people in the chain of command privately dismissed the fraud claims as nuts or outlandish or insane doesn’t necessarily mean Fox couldn’t cover and comment on the extremely newsworthy spectacle of a president saying an election was stolen.”

Actually, no reputable media organization would allow a reporter to cover a story they were caught lying about. What’s more, the problem wasn’t that Fox was “covering” what Donald Trump and others said about election fraud. The problem was that the Fox News hosts were endorsing the fraud allegations themselves. That isn’t journalism, it’s propaganda.

In conclusion, Kurtz – still claiming to be fair to both sides – closed with a comment by Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, who said that…

“The network has an obligation to report the news fairly. I think a lot of the noise you hear about this case is actually not about the law, and is not about journalism, and is really about the politics.”

Really? For Murdoch to brag about Fox’s “obligation to report the news fairly” after what the Dominion lawsuit has revealed is preposterous. That has never been the mission of Fox News, and the recent disclosures of their internal communications proves that it isn’t now. Not when you have their hosts knowingly deceiving viewers and spreading flagrant falsehoods that undermine democracy and foment violence.

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CNN’s Jim Acosta Renames the Tucker Carlson, Fox News False Flag Flick: ‘Proud Boy Porn’

Posted by on October 30, 2021 at 4:41 pm. 3 Comments :

This week Tucker Carlson announced the premiere of his Fox News produced crocumentary, “Patriot Purge.” And judging by the trailer that he released, it is a cornucopia of conspiracy crackpottery. Carlson is promoting the program as “The True Story Behind January 6.” Which, of course, is a lie. What it is is rancid wingnut code intended to incite further violence.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, QAnon

Carlson’s “propaganda flick” compiles much of what he has said in recent weeks on his primetime Fox News Hour of Ultra-Rightist Rancor into an indigestible pile of manure. His focus is on his baseless accusation that the January 6th insurrection was a “false flag” operation orchestrated by the FBI and other agencies of the mythical “Deep State.”

On Saturday afternoon CNN’s Jim Acosta delivered a scathing review of Carlson’s demagoguery (video below). It was so complete and accurate that it hardly needs any commentary. So without further ado, Acosta said that…

“The reason why federal investigators and millions of Americans are terrified by right-wing violence in this country is because it keeps happening. and Tucker Carlson is inciting more of it. Tucker is calling his propaganda flick “The Patriot Purge!” It’s nothing more than Proud Boy porn. And the worst part is that a major corporation in America, Fox News, is bankrolling it.

[For more on Carlson’s lie-riddled agitprop, see this: Breaking Down the Crocumentary By Tucker Carlson that Glorifies ‘False Flag’ Insurrection.]

“Now Fox is insisting that Tucker’s manifesto will only be seen on its streaming service, Fox Nation. Please. No matter how you slice it the Murdoch family is cashing in as American democracy is being set ablaze. The fact that the Murdoch-run Wall Street Journal just ran a letter to the editor peddling the “Big Lie” again is hardly the worst thing that they’ve done this week. And that’s saying a lot.”

[Fox News pretending that they aren’t responsible for what Carlson does on Fox Nation is precious. Fox Nation is the streaming subsidiary of Fox News. And they are using Carlson’s seditionist sermonizing to drive up subscriptions to the service. What’s more, at least some of Carlson’s “false flag” screed will surely be aired on Fox News]

“As the Anti-Defamation League wrote in a letter to Fox executive chairman and CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, how many more people need to die? My question to the Murdochs is this: Why are you doing this to us? Why are you doing this to America? You came to this country and built a media empire. Isn’t that enough? During Trump you became American State TV. Now you seem like ‘End of America State TV.’ People like to say the Murdochs, ‘Oh, they’re just like that HBO show, Succession.’ Close. It’s more like Secession. The Murdochs and Tucker Carlson, their primetime pyromaniac, appear to be hell bent on dragging this country into a civil war. Jefferson Davis would be proud.”

The only part of Acosta’s monologue that is slightly off base is his assumption that the Murdochs came to the U.S. with intentions of building a media empire and nothing else. The truth is that Rupert Murdoch was a right-wing propagandist in Britain, and in his homeland, Australia, before that. So no, building a media empire in the U.S. would not be enough for him and his family.

If only civil war and secession were what they wanted. But it is clear that they want much more. They do not want a splintered America. They want to rule all of it. And with a puppet seated at the top that they can control. Which explains why they got behind an ignorant, unprincipled, business failure like Donald Trump in the first place.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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On Fox and Friends Lara Trump ‘Cancels’ Fox News Poll Showing Biden with 56% Approval

Posted by on June 26, 2021 at 11:10 am. 2 Comments :

The mission of Fox News was recently disclosed by the network’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch. He told a Morgan Stanley investor conference that it is Fox’s job to be the opposition saying that “That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration […] That’s where our audience is.”

Fox News Lies

True to form, Fox News is carrying out their mission at every opportunity. Their so-called “news” reporting is comprised almost entirely of attacks on President Biden, his administration, and the overwhelmingly popular Democratic agenda. In fact, Fox is advancing their anti-Democratic propaganda even when when it means burying the results of their own alleged journalism.

This week Fox News released the findings of a poll they conducted that apparently produced results that contradicted their right-wing narratives. The poll showed that Biden is enjoying a 56% approval rating. However, that’s the sort of truth that Fox News doesn’t want to burden their audience with. Consequently, what would ordinarily be the topline news in the story was pushed further down in an obvious attempt to bury it.

Biden’s approval rating was literally the last line in the article on Fox’s website. The headline didn’t even mention it, reading “Fox News Poll: Majority believes COVID-19 leaked from lab in China.” What’s more, Fox barely acknowledged that the poll even existed on their network. And one of the few mentions of it was this segment of Fox and Friends where Lara Trump, a Fox News contributor, described the poll as “illegitimate”:

Kilmeade: How do you explain his approval rating, according to Fox’s poll, is 54 percent? [Note that Kilmeade got the number wrong]
Lara Trump: I mean, I truly don’t believe that. I don’t think that is a legitimate number. I also think he gets totally coddled by the mainstream media. Every time you see him truly asked a question by so many of these outlets they’re these softball questions about ice cream. And really they don’t push him on anything. They don’t follow up on anything the way we know they would with Donald Trump. And he just gets glowing reviews all around from the mainstream media. So very clearly, people who tune into those outlets are not getting the full picture on Joe Biden. But I cannot believe that anybody would have his approval rating anywhere over about negative 5% at this point.

Imagine that. Trump called Fox’s poll illegitimate on Fox’s air. Co-host Steve Doocy meekly inserted his view that Fox stands behind their polls. But it wasn’t much of defense after Trump’s tirade. And we’ll just set aside the absurdity of anyone on Fox News complaining about “coddling” and “softball questions” after four years of sucking up to Donald Trump.

A previous appearance by Trump since she became an employee of Fox News caused a bit of stir when she advocated violent vigilantism by residents of border towns against refugees. “I guess they better arm up and get guns,” Lara warned, “and be ready, and maybe they’re gonna have to start taking matters into their own hands.”

The Fox News mission to disparage Democrats and democracy is in full effect. In just the past couple of weeks for example, they have been bashing Vice-President Kamala Harris for both going to, and not going to, the border. They stand behind Tucker Carlson’s nauseating conspiracy theories attacking the FBI and the U.S. military. They are deliberately misleading viewers about voting reform and Critical Race Theory. And they literally take the side of Russia’s Vladimir Putin over Biden and the U.S.A.

That’s how Fox News rolls. And their anti-America, unpatriotic, lie-riddled assault on the values and principles of the nation will continue until the people who Fox is disinforming pull the veil of deception from their eyes. Sadly, the nature of the Trumpian cult to which they are devoted is going to prevent that for the foreseeable future.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
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Biden’s Popularity is Driving Fox News Crazy, Reporting Insane Distortions of Polls

Posted by on April 19, 2021 at 11:55 am. 2 Comments :

As President Joe Biden approaches the 100 day mark of his presidency, his critics at Fox News are struggling to find anything coherent to complain about. That’s a profound failure coming from the network whose CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, publicly declared that the network’s “job” is to be “the opposition” to the Biden administration. Apparently they are doing a lousy job.

Fox News, Joe Biden

Consequently, Fox News has had to resort to petty and embarrassing contrivances and manufactured “scandals” involving such political luminaries as Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head. Yet somehow, these tactics haven’t produced the avalanche of anti-Biden sentiment that Fox News hoped for. As a result, the right-wing propagandists at Fox are attempting to misinterpret the mostly positive polling that Biden has enjoyed. Monday morning Fox contributor Liz Peek reported that…

“They want us to believe that Biden’s progressive juggernaut is wildly popular, and that the president’s obvious inadequacies are a figment of right-wing imagination. They want us to think that common-sense Americans are OK with having our schools closed and our borders open, that we are on board with declaring our country racist and allowing riots to wreck our cities. They want us to believe that Biden is way more successful – already – than President Trump ever was. It is not true. None of it.”

For the record, literally everything in that paragraph is a lie. No Democrat has ever suggested that closed schools are OK. Nor have they ever advocated for open borders. Nor have they declared the country racist (just the cretins like Tucker Carlson who are proudly racist and those who deny that it ever existed). And certainly no Democrat has ever supported “allowing riots to wreck our cities.”

However, Peek’s reference to Biden being “way more successful – already – than President Trump ever was” is demonstrably true. In four years Trump has nothing substantive to show for himself. He failed at everything that he defined as his top priorities. His border wall was never completed or paid for by Mexico. He didn’t eliminate the national debt. He never brought jobs back from foreign countries, but he did lose more of them than any president in modern times. And he presided over the loss of more than half a million America lives due to his negligence and incompetence. His only “accomplishment” was the passage of a tax bill that overwhelmingly benefited corporations and his wealthy pals.

Biden, on the other hand, ushered through a two trillion dollar pandemic relief and stimulus plan. He rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. He signed numerous executive orders reversing much of the damage done by Trump. He is advancing historic infrastructure legislation. He’s moving forward expeditiously on reforms for immigration, gun safety, and voting rights. And he effectively managed COVID vaccine programs that have already resulted in 30% the country being fully vaccinated.

To support her flawed analysis that Biden is broadly unpopular, Peek cited a Gallup poll that found that only “32% of the nation is “satisfied” with the way things are going, while 67% is dissatisfied.” What she left out was that the same poll showed only 11% satisfied at the end of Trump’s term three months ago. All this proves is that Americans are notoriously unsatisfied, but that Biden produced a 21 point increase in short order.

Further distorting reality, Peek cherry-picked a poll that shows Biden with a plurality approval of 48%, which is pretty good in these divisive times. But then she spins it negatively because the “strongly approve” number is only 34%, which is still pretty good. She neglects to note that many other polls show Biden’s approval comfortably above 50% and as high as 61%. And his policies – including on the economy, jobs, terrorism, immigration, and COVID-19 – are similarly favored by significant majorities.

Interestingly, Peek notes that a majority of Biden voters said they were voting against Trump rather than for Biden. That’s nice of her to concede that Trump is widely despised. She also pointed out that voters approve of Biden’s jobs plan, but only if it’s paid for “through higher corporate taxes or hiking taxes on high earners.” Which is another helpful concession on her part that Trump’s tax scam was a disaster, and that the nation wants the rich to pay their fair share.

In the end, after dismissing the obvious distortions and lies, Fox’s analysis is fairly positive for Biden. That’s how difficult it’s been for them to land a punch against this President, even in spite of all the dishonesty they pack into the effort. If they were smart they would back off until there’s a realistic issue to whine about. Something will always come up. But the operative word there is “smart,” which may be too high a bar for anyone at Fox News.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Rachel Maddow Topped All Cable News Programs for the 1st Quarter of 2021

Posted by on March 31, 2021 at 4:03 pm. 6 Comments :

One of the more pompous predictions of the former guy (Donald Trump) was that without him “all forms of media will tank.” Although there is some truth to that in the sense that he attracted eyeballs in the same way that a bloody highway crash does. He insisted on constantly being the center of attention even if that meant making a fool of himself, which he did more often than not.

Rachel Maddow

However, what Trump failed to predict was the rise of progressive media and particularly MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Her performance has been a bright light in a media environment that has been shrouded by a global pandemic. During the first quarter of 2021, Maddow rose to become the number one cable news program, beating her competition on the prior leader, Fox News. For part of the quarter Maddow was the number one program on all of cable, not just cable news. She marked that milestone on March 3rd:

During the quarter Fox News was the biggest loser, having dropped 40 percent into third place behind both MSNBC and CNN. By comparison CNN was off 32 Percent, and MSNBC fell only 19 percent. It isn’t surprising that viewership was down this year. It was being compared to an unusually eventful prior year that was bombarded with profoundly significant developments like the pandemic, the second impeachment, and the presidential election.

This year by contrast has been languid, in the most pleasant way. President Biden has sought to make his policies the story, rather than himself. The ponderous presence of a psychotic narcissist has been banished from Washington, although it still emits it’s pitiful, emasculated roars from its new lair in Palm Beach. This sea change is a big plus for journalism. As Tom Jones at the Poynter Institute noted…

“Now, for the most part, Trump can be ignored. Which means stories that really matter can be covered. Maybe it won’t draw the audience we’ve seen in the past, but it will be important.”

The standings in the ratings are likely to be volatile in the coming months, Fox News may regain its leading post when viewers who abandoned it for more radical pastures (Newsmax, OANN) return. They may find those other outlets tiresome, specious, and devoid of substance. And Trump isn’t around to promote them anymore.

Fox’s CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, is confidant that Fox News ratings will increase because its viewers will appreciate Fox’s unethical commitment to right-wing propaganda. Murdoch recently admitted that Fox’s role is to be “the opposition” to Biden and the Democrats, saying “That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration, and you’ll see our ratings really improve from here.”

Maybe. But the fact that MSNBC and Rachel Maddow prevailed during one of the most competitive seasons in modern times is evidence that many viewers hunger for honest and informative reporting. Fox’s approach to journalism as an ultra-conservative confirmation bias generator can only succeed on a temporary basis. And its reporting will have no lasting impact anywhere other than in the minds of the indoctrinated wingnuttery.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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CNN’s Righteous Rant that ‘Tucker Carlson is the New Donald Trump’

Posted by on March 14, 2021 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

Ever since the election last November, Fox News has suffered a crushing decline. For the first time in twenty years they fell to third place behind MSNBC and CNN As a result of that collapse, the GOP’s propaganda network has embarked on a mission to win back the Donald Trump devotee demographic that was previously their exclusive property.

Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump

Some of the ratings shrinkage was due to newer and more radical right-wing outlets seducing disaffected StormTrumpers after the decisive victory by Joe Biden. Although Newsmax and One America News Network are also hurting ratings-wise now. The strategy adopted by Fox News has been to shift even farther to the right. They fired some of their more “moderate” presenters and canceled programs that weren’t stridently conservative hype factories.

What’s more, Fox News shifted the content of their existing programs to even more fanatical extremism. The CEO admitted publicly that the network’s mission is to oppose Biden. And no one on Fox News has answered that call more fervently than Tucker Carlson. Some of his recent unhinged diatribes include…

On Sunday morning, CNN’s Brian Stelter opened his program, Reliable Sources, with a monologue about Carlson that hit all the right notes (video below). The theme was that “Tucker Carlson is the New Donald Trump.” It’s hard to know who should be more offended by this comparison. They are both so reprehensible that it’s too close a contest to predict. But Stelter had the goods to back it up:

“Tucker Carlson is the new Donald Trump. Tucker has taken Trump’s place as a right-wing leader, as an outrage generator, as a fire-starter. And it’s all happening on Fox just like Trump’s campaign did. Which means Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are ultimately responsible.

“Think about all the ways these two men are similar. Everyday Carlson is throwing bombs, making online memes, offending millions of people. Also delighting millions of others. Tapping into white male rage and resentment. Stoking distrust of Big Tech and the media. Generally coarsening the discourse. Never apologizing for anything. And setting the GOP’s agenda. Sounds like a recently retired president, right?”

Right! And it’s no accident. Carlson has always been a brazen self-promoter whose primary motivations were to advance his own welfare. Now he sees an opening to raise his profile among a group of people who are like cult followers left adrift when their leader has been deposed. And he’s milking it for all it’s worth. For example, these are few of Carlson’s recent tele-tantrums:

Carlson doesn’t care if he’s leading his flock off of sanity’s cliffs edge. He doesn’t care if he’s harming the country or the desperate people who are sucked into his web of lies. And Fox News doesn’t care either. Stelter closed his monologue with this cogent observation:

“It’s ultimately all about the Murdoch’s and what they want. How they’re gonna keep the profits flowing. By giving the viewers more and more radicalized content. Led by Tucker Carlson.”

The fact that a cable network can operate with such reckless abandonment of principles and callous disregard for people’s welfare is frightening. And while the responsibility rests with shameless liars like Carlson, the management cannot pretend to be blameless. The fault lies with everyone contributing to the madness and the inflammatory rhetoric that is poisoning the weak minds their audience. But sadly, their audience aren’t the only victims. Carlson and Fox are more broadly dangerous because their purposeful lies and disinformation are driving the nation apart. And that’s makes victims of us all.

NOTE: Twitter recently suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. And you can follow this surrogate Twitter account here. Thanks for your support.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

Fox News CEO Murdoch Admits that the Network Opposes Biden – For Ratings

Posted by on March 5, 2021 at 1:39 pm. 18 Comments :

When Fox News launched twenty-six years ago, its mission was to advance the interests of conservatives and Republicans, and to serve as a partisan counterweight to credible news enterprises and honest journalists. While that was no secret, it’s founders – right-wing newspaper magnate Rupert Murdoch and GOP media consultant Roger Ailes – pretended to be “fair and balanced,” a slogan that falsely implied that other news operations were not (and which Fox ditched four years ago).

Fox News, Joe Biden

This week Rupert’s son, Lachlan Murdoch, who is now the network’s CEO, spoke at a Morgan Stanley investor conference where he said the quiet parts out loud. Apparently, in the Era of Trump and QAnon, it is no longer necessary to veil their biases in cheesy slogans. Murdoch said that…

“‘The main beneficiary of the Trump administration from a ratings point of view was MSNBC … and that’s because they were the loyal opposition,’ Murdoch said of the rival cable network. ‘That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration, and you’ll see our ratings really improve from here.'” […]

“‘Seventy-five million people voted for a Republican president, sometimes in spite of his personality at times,’ Murdoch said. ‘That’s what we represent. We’re going to stick to the center-right. That’s where our audience is.'”

Murdoch was obviously making excuses for the fact that, since the election last November, Fox News has slipped to third place in the cable news wars, behind MSNBC and CNN. Rachel Maddow is now the number one program in all of cable, not just cable news:

However, Murdoch’s explanation is peculiar in that he is also admitting that Fox News is “the loyal opposition” to the the administration of President Joe Biden. That’s wholly inappropriate from a journalistic ethics standpoint. Plus, it implies that they were affirmatively supporting Donald Trump for the past four years. Of course, anyone with a functioning cerebrum knew this, but it was rarely stated explicitly in public by Fox News executives.

What’s more, Murdoch is also saying that the reasons for his network’s blatant bias is for ratings. That’s also improper in the news business, where truth is the standard to which honest journalists aspire. Truth, of course, was the first casualty of Fox’s mangling of the reporter’s craft.

And as if that weren’t bad enough, Murdoch went on to concede the repugnant nature of Trump’s personality, or lack thereof. Yet he is still supporting him because of the voters he hopes to keep as viewers. Murdoch outright slams Trump’s noxious demeanor and, in the same sentence, declares that that’s what Fox News represents, and will continue doing so.

The position that Murdoch is taking is not acceptable for any enterprise that purports to be in the news business. And while he seemingly spoke for MSNBC, NBC didn’t appreciate that presumptuousness:

“A spokesperson for NBCUniversal News Group, which includes NBC News and MSNBC, said in response that ‘our role, and the role of any legitimate news organization — whether it includes an ‘opinion section’ or not — is to hold power to account, regardless of party.'”

And therein lies the difference between Fox News and its competitors. While other news networks may have opinions, they are based on facts and applied uniformly. At Fox News their overt negativity is always aimed the Democrats and the liberals whom they regard as enemies (as conveniently illustrated by Tucker Carlson) this week. Fox’s extreme political prejudice has even irritated other members of the Murdoch family. Lachlan’s big brother James complained about the “toxic” politics practiced by Fox News:

“Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years. […] Spreading disinformation – whether about the election, public health or climate change – has real world consequences.”

That pretty much says it all. And it comes from a source that is embedded well inside the Fox bubble. Unfortunately, James has nothing to do with the network any more, other than being a shareholder. But when Daddy Murdoch is “off the air” that may change. And then, so may Fox.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.