Tag: news corp
Does Rupert Murdoch Have The Guts To Take Down Trump?

Does Rupert Murdoch Have The Guts To Take Down Trump?

If the stunning midterm results bear any message for Republicans, it is that Donald Trump continues to poison their party’s prospects, as he has done in every election since his fluke Electoral College squeaker six years ago. Nobody sees Trump more clearly now than Rupert Murdoch, the party’s would-be kingmaker, whose media empire trained its artillery on him after the election fiasco.

In classic New York Post style, Murdoch’s flagship tabloid lampooned its former object of affection on page one as “Trumpty Dumpty,” with a suitably humiliating illustration and accompanying columns that blamed him for the midterm failure and urged him to forget about running for president again. On the same day, Murdoch’s upscale Wall Street Journal editorial page whacked Trump as the midterm’s “biggest loser,” pinning on him the GOP defeats in 2018, 2020, 2021, and now 2022-- and suggesting that maybe, finally, Republicans are “sick and tired of losing.”

Meanwhile, on Fox News Channel, the Murdoch network that once served as state TV for the Trump campaign and White House, the post-election commentary was so shocking to Trump—man bites dog--that he snapped back on his Truth Social platform. “For me, Fox News was always gone, even in 2015-16 when I began my journey,” he complained with typical dishonesty. “But now they’re really gone.”

As Erik Wemple noted in the Washington Post, we’ve watched this melodrama unfold more than once already, most recently last summer after the House Select Committee’s devastating hearings, when the Post and the Journal both denounced Trump’s incitement of the January 6insurrection. The media mogul has never liked Trump, whom he regards as an intellectual inferior and a business fraud. But the problem, as Murdoch has learned, is that Trump’s mass cult following can affect Fox’s ratings by turning to its competitor Newsmax.

Despite his current apparent enthusiasm for flavor-of-the-month Ron DeSantis, Murdoch and his minions will of course crawl back if the Florida governor’s scant appeal fizzles away. But what would Rupert do if he had the testicular fortitude to rid the Republican Party of that meddlesome mountebank Trump?

If Rupert at all means what his publications now say, he must direct their fire as he does whenever he pursues a political vendetta. Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, among many others, know exactly how that goes.

If Murdoch is serious and not just striking a frivolous pose, the test for him is clear. To put the stake in Trump, Murdoch must at once instruct his editors and producers, his writers and TV personalities, to desist from undermining the myriad investigations into the former president’s alleged crimes – and instead lend support to those probes and publicize their ruinous revelations.

In his past feuds with political figures, the News Corp boss (and those who do his bidding) have never hesitated to fabricate or fib. This time, however, there is no need for his trademark journalistic malpractice. The Murdoch media could do something completely new and different -- real journalism that accurately reports the current federal and state investigations of Trump and his associates, and editorially encourages prosecution to uphold the rule of law.

Murdoch is mean and reactionary, but he isn’t stupid. He is well aware that the Trump Organization has acted fraudulently for decades, as shown in the evidence compiled by New York Attorney General Letitia James. He has heard Trump’s taped conversation with Brad Raffensperger, attempting to bully the Georgia secretary of state into fixing the 2020 election for him by “finding 11,780 votes.” Murdoch understands the wider conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, not least because individuals on Fox News were privy to the coup as it unfolded. He has seen the FBI photos of top-secret documents that Trump stole from the White House and took to Mar-a-Lago.

Knowing all that, the old press lord must dictate a course correction to his corps of obedient lackeys and get on board with the investigations. He would find himself in familiar company, from hardcore conservative Rep. Liz Cheney to Bill Kristol, the Never Trump neoconservative who edited the Weekly Standard magazine when Murdoch owned it.

Chances that this will actually happen are vanishingly small. But unless he backs the investigations that could haul Trump and his gang before the bar of justice, Murdoch’s current criticism will be exposed as cheap talk and nothing more.

Murdoch has now set the test for himself. Will he back down as he did after blasting Trump over the January 6 insurrection? Will he again prove to be a blowhard and a weakling? The whole world is watching, Rupert.

Spanked By Murdoch's Tabloid, Trump Erupts In 'Truth' Tantrum

Spanked By Murdoch's Tabloid, Trump Erupts In 'Truth' Tantrum

On Tuesday the United States discovered that when more Americans come out to vote, the MAGA world and its surrogate Republican Party are really unpopular. One of the grand delusions in the traditional media is that Donald Trump, a man who never received the popular vote in the history of ever, was somehow popular. It’s a relative term, of course. Donald Trump is popular with the MAGA crowd that believes they will ascend into heaven on his back. Donald Trump is less unpopular than many of his fellow conservative leaders within his own party. But he isn’t really popular. A large part of this is because Donald Trump is a terrible person, and most people can see that.

The Republican Party and its operatives are scrambling to see who can wrestle for control over the internally warring political party. Tuesday night’s results showed that Americans, by and large, are not interested in Big Lie promoters and relitigating the 2020 election. This has opened a sliver of light to GOP operatives who hope they can wriggle free of Trump before 2024. To that end, the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post released a very disparaging front-page story Thursday morning pointing the finger at Trump. TheWall Street Journal’s editorial board released an opinion piece with the headline, “Trump Is the Republican Party’s Biggest Loser.”

We all know how thin-skinned the disgraced former guy is. Will he have a meltd—

Yes he will!

On Truth Social, Donald Trump pressed his thumbs together and began a rant the likes of which we have all experienced before. I will be putting it in here, typos and all.

“Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn't it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 million to 4.6 million? Just asking?”

That was early on for The Donald. Not so bad, maybe this won’t be a bi—

“Incredible how dishonest the Fake News Media is. The failing New York Times has gone crazy. So many of the people I Endorsed went onto victory on Tuesday Night, nobody was even close, and they literally make up a story refusing to write the facts, and only quoting enemies and losers. Almost all of the people I endorsed WON, yet if you read the story from two Trump hating writers (who only do as they are told!), you would not even recognize the truth. They truly are, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!!!”

Yes. That got turned up fast. Hopefully things are cooling down over at MAGA headquar—

“… 219 WINS against 16 LOSSES IN THE GENERAL ELECTION, and yet, the Fake News writes only unrecognizable junk. No wonder they are all doing sooo badly!”

Okaaaay.

“There is a Fake Story being promulgated by third rate reporter, Maggie Hagaman of the Failing New York Times, that I am blaming our great former, First Lady, Melania, and Sean Hannity, that I was angry with their pushing me to Endorse Dr. Oz. First of all Oz is a wonderful guy who really worked hard, and was a very good candidate, but he WAS LONG IN THE RACE before I ever Endorsed him, they had NOTHING to do with it, he was not a ‘denier’ (his mistake!), and I was not at all ANGRY. Fake News!”

Somebody looked at their Word of the Day calendar! At least he doesn’t sound angry, amiright?

“I'd like to apologize to Melania and Sean Hannity for all of the Fake News and fictional stories (made up out of thin air, with no sources despite them claiming there are!), being dumped on you by reporters and ‘News’ Organizations who know the stories are not true. The Fake News Media is “Crazed” and totally out of control. I only wish the public could understand how really corrupt and crooked they are. They MAKE UP stories and then push them down your throats. Our Country is in big trouble!”

To be honest that doesn’t really sound like much of an apolo—

“… 219 WINS against 16 LOSSES IN THE GENERAL ELECTION, and yet, the Fake News writes only unrecognizable junk. No wonder they are all doing sooo badly!”

You said that already.

“Despite having pick so many winners, I have to put up with the Fake News. For me Fox News was always gone, even in 2015-16 when I began my “journey,” but now they're really gone. Such an opportunity for another media outlet to make an absolute fortune, and do good for America. Let's see what happens?”

Let’s see.

“For those many people that are being fed the fake narrative from the corrupt media, that I am Angry about the Midterms, don't believe it. I am not at all angry, did a great job (I wasn't the one running!), and I'm very busy looking into the future. Remember, I am a “Stable Genius.”

Sort of like seeing a band you never liked do their greatest hits, which you didn’t care for in the first place.

Election Night 2022 was full of surprises—mostly for people pushing the last couple months of traditional media narrative of a "red tsunami." The problem is that Americans are not super into the GOP. Markos and Kerry have been saying the media narrative was wrong for months, and on Tuesday, Daily Kos and The Brief team was validated. Time to celebrate!

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

News Corp’s Revenue Falls For Third Straight Quarter

News Corp’s Revenue Falls For Third Straight Quarter

(Reuters) — News Corp’s quarterly revenue fell for the third straight quarter as income from its core news and information services business, which includes Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, declined further.

The company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, said on Thursday revenue from its news and information business fell about 11 percent to $1.29 billion in the first quarter.

The business, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of its total revenue, has been struggling for the past few years as readers shift to digital media and newspapers’ advertising revenue slides.

News Corp has been diversifying its business to lower its dependence on print.

Revenue at the company’s digital real estate services business, which includes U.S. website realtor.com and a stake in Australian REA Group, jumped 70.5 percent to $191 million.

The net income available to the company’s stockholders rose to $175 million, or 30 cents per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $65 million, or 11 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total revenue fell 4.5 percent to $2.01 billion.

Excluding items, the company had a profit of 5 cents per share from continuing operations and revenue of $2.09 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 6 cents per share and revenue of $2.09 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

News Corp’s shares were unchanged at $15.35 in extended trading.

(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar and Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey)

Photo: Passers-by walk near the News Corporation building in New York June 28, 2012. REUTERS/Keith Bedford

News Corp. Nixes Hacking Joke At Emmy Awards

Sunday night’s Emmy Awards broadcast had glitz, gowns, glamour… and censorship.

Alec Baldwin had planned to make a joke about News Corp.’s recent phone-hacking scandal during the awards show’s opening sketch. FOX, which is owned by News Corp., removed the joke from the previously recorded skit. A network spokeswoman said the decision was made because the company did not want to appear to be making light of the serious hacking allegations.

According to The New York Times, “In the skit, Mr. Baldwin played the ‘president of television.’ While on the phone with an unidentified colleague, he paused and said, ‘Rupert, is that you? I hear you breathing, Rupert!’ The chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation is Rupert Murdoch.”

News of the World, a British News Corp. paper, was shut down this summer following reports that the paper had illegally eavesdropped on several occasions, including hacking into the phones of celebrities and victims’ families. The investigation is ongoing.

After the network cut the joke, Baldwin pulled out of the skit altogether. The sketch was re-filmed without the hacking joke, and Star Trek veteran Leonard Nimoy took over the role. Baldwin did not attend the Emmys, saying he had a prior commitment and insisting that his decision was unrelated to the News Corp. incident.

30 Rock, the NBC comedy in which Baldwin plays a General Electric boss who meddles in a television show, often takes jabs at NBC and network politics. Apparently, Murdoch and Co. lack NBC’s sense of humor.

On Sunday night, Baldwin wrote on Twitter that he understood why News Corp. killed his joke: “If I were enmeshed in a scandal where I hacked phones of families of innocent crime victims purely for profit, I’d want that to go away too.”

Whether watching awards shows or singing along to “Glee,” it’s easy to forget that FOX is owned by News Corp. But even when it comes to entertainment, viewers should always be aware of what message the networks are sending– and what they aren’t letting others say.