Is Murdoch tiring of Trump? Mogul’s print titles
dump the ex-president
Tabloid with long relationship with former president
blasts him over Capitol attack, saying he is unworthy to be elected again
Edward
Helmore in New York
Mon 25 Jul
2022 07.00 BST
Rupert
Murdoch, hitherto one of Donald Trump’s most loyal media messengers, appears to
have turned on the former president.
US media
circles were rocked this weekend after the New York Post issued an excoriating
editorial indictment of Trump’s failure to stop the attack on the US Capitol on
6 January 2021.
The
editorial, in a tabloid owned by Murdoch since 1976, began: “As his followers
stormed the Capitol, calling for his vice-president to be hanged, President
Donald Trump sat in his private dining room, watching TV, doing nothing. For
three hours, seven minutes.”
Trump’s
only focus, the Post said, was to block the peaceful transfer of power.
“As a
matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself
unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again.”
The Wall
Street Journal, another Murdoch paper, issued a similar critique in which it
said evidence before the House January 6 committee was a reminder that “Trump
betrayed his supporters”.
Trump, the
Journal said, took an oath to defend the constitution and had an obligation to
protect the Capitol from the mob he told to march there, knowing it was armed.
“He
refused. He didn’t call the military to send help. He didn’t call [Mike] Pence
to check on the safety of his loyal [vice-president]. Instead he fed the mob’s
anger and let the riot play out.”
Trump had
“shown not an iota of regret”, the Journal said, adding: “Character is revealed
in a crisis, and Mr Pence passed his January 6 trial. Mr Trump utterly failed
his.”
The
editorials were only the latest salvoes from the big guns of Murdochian
conservatism.
“The person
who owns January 6 is Donald Trump,” the Journal said in June.
“Look
forward!” it urged readers. “The 2024 field is rich. You have Florida governor
Ron DeSantis, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, former UN ambassador Nikki
Haley … the list goes on. All candidates who embrace conservative policies …
Unsubscribe from Trump’s daily emails begging for money. Then pick your
favorite from a new crop of conservatives. Look to 2022, and 2024, and a new
era. Let’s make America sane again.”
Columnists
issued similar calls.
“Let go of
the anvil that, in the most buoyant waters imaginable, will sink you to the
bottom of the sea,” Peggy Noonan wrote in the Journal.
In the
Post, Michael Goodwin said Trump’s “old feuds and grievances already sound
stale and by 2024 they are not likely to inspire the hope and confidence
America desperately needs”.
Last year,
Murdoch himself said conservatives must play an active role in political
debate, “but that will not happen if President Trump stays focused on the
past”.
There are
also signs that Murdoch’s most powerful media property, Fox News, is beginning
to change its stance. On Friday, Fox News elected not to broadcast a Trump
rally in Arizona during which a state endorsement met with boos. Instead, Fox
News broadcast an interview with DeSantis.
Observers
believe Murdoch, 91, may be tiring of Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was
stolen, which has both kept Trump in the spotlight and denied him the
ceremonial status usually extended to ex-presidents.
Murdoch
outlets have faced legal repercussions for repeating Trump’s lie. A judge in
Delaware recently said Fox Corp could be sued by Dominion Voting Systems for
broadcasting conspiracy theories related to the 2020 election.
Rupert
Murdoch and his son Lachlan are named in the $1.6bn suit, for allegedly acting
with “actual malice” in allowing Fox News to broadcast claims the election was
rigged. The judge, Eric Davis, cited reports that the elder Murdoch privately
said Trump lost the election.
Fox News
says it is “confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational
to our democracy and must be protected, in addition to the damages claims being
outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as
nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their
jobs.”
A friendship of convenience
The
relationship between Murdoch and Trump has long been regarded as one of
convenience. Thirty years ago, Trump often used the New York Post in his divorce
battle with Ivana Trump, his first wife who died this month. As described by
the Trump ally Roger Stone, to the New York Times, Trump considered the Page
Six column “very important to his rising stature in New York City and branding
efforts”.
But a year
before Trump was elected, in 2015, the Times reported that Murdoch thought him
a “phony”.
After Trump
mocked the senator and former Republican presidential nominee John McCain,
Murdoch wrote on Twitter: “When is Donald Trump going to stop embarrassing his
friends, let alone the whole country?”
The Journal
called Trump a “catastrophe” and declared: “Trump is toast.” But by the time
Trump was elected in 2016, he and Murdoch had cemented a friendship of
convenience.
Murdoch was
able to bypass White House aides to reach the president. Trump reportedly
called Murdoch for reassurance Fox News would not be affected by a deal to sell
21st Century Fox to Disney.
Jared
Kushner and Ivanka Trump holidayed on Murdoch’s 184ft yacht. Ivanka became a
trustee for Murdoch and Wendi Deng’s twin daughters.
The latest
editorials may not change the views of Fox News primetime hosts. Sean Hannity,
for one, has described the House January 6 hearings as an “obsessive partisan anti-Trump
smear” and claimed they have not “establish[ed] a criminal case or reveal[ed]
new damning evidence … as they have promised”.
But the
print titles seem to be moving on. Quoting “someone in the Murdoch orbit”,
Vanity Fair said last month the media baron was “a pragmatic guy”.
“He knows
better than anybody how to read political tea leaves. It’s fairly self-evident
that quite a few people in the firmament have begun to challenge the previously
supported collective viewpoint about Trump. It’s understood now that the gloves
are off. As [Trump] lashes out, it just makes it easier for people to hit
back.”
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