The Damage Done

Rupert Murdoch retires, but Lachlan is, if anything, farther right than his father. There will be no recalibration of the family cash cow. They remain happy to divide America for fun and profit.

National treasure, satirist Andy Borowitz, in The New Yorker:

Murdoch, the nonagenarian founder of News Corp and the Fox News Channel announced his retirement recently. If you watched the streaming phenomenon, “Succession,” you got a glimpse into the fraught and oppressive world of the uber-rich family. It’s the only time I’ve ever been excited to watch a show where all the characters are despicable. I guess I was fascinated because it was clear that someone in the Murdoch orbit was leaking. Those leaks became plot lines to the extent that when Rupert dumped fourth wife, Jerry Hall, for his esthetician, Hall had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, in itself pretty standard, but one clause was telling: she could not speak to the producers of “Succession.”  

In his zeal to, in biographer Michael Wolff’s words, “own the news,” the Aussie transplant hired the extremely aggrieved Republican media consultant, Roger Ailes, and the two created the Fox News Channel, a slick mouthpiece for the Republican Party. Because Ailes was a savvy marketer, he repositioned every other news outlet by calling his “fair and balanced,” when it was obviously neither. In the process, Murdoch, via Ailes, did reputational damage to our country and to democracy.

Undermining America at every turn, whether questioning Barack Obama’s heritage, religion, and birthplace—despite a total lack of evidence—or repeating so many lies, conspiracy theories, and plain old gossip intended to sway the electorate, it’s all in a day’s work for the xenophobic crew on, ironically, New York City’s Avenue of Americas.

Just when you thought the network, after surviving more sex scandals than the US Senate or the entire bro’hood of Silicon Valley, and paying Dominion Voting Systems $787M for defamation, Fox News remains completely unrepentant, broadcasting captions like the one under President Biden’s picture proclaiming “Wannabe Dictator, Arrests Political Competitor” after Trump was indicted by New York state (not the feds).

Rupert and heir-apparent, Lachlan Murdoch

The damage done is obvious, but still incalculable, because like throwing a stone into a pond, it has a ripple effect. The ripples show up on conservative talk radio, internet sites, and social media, all of which gleefully leverage off the Mother Ship. In those hazy, fact-challenged universes, Hilary is president, and Trump won in 2020. It’s hard to believe that people are so gullible (see The Flat Earth Society), but there you have it.

In their world, Joe Biden is a feeble poseur. An incompetent. A senile and doddering old man. Fox showed him tripping over a sandbag securing a mic-stand on a windy stage more often than you’ll see people dancing on TikTok.

Never mind the fact that while his predecessor wanted to side with Russian president Vladimir Putin and destroy NATO, Biden has single-handedly brought the North Atlantic community together. No one else is even fractionally responsible for the organized, democratic world coming to the defense of Ukraine. That is Joe Biden.

Yes, he shuffles his feet when he walks, but if you saw him recently at the NATO meetings in Brussels, you saw a man fully in control of his mind. He exudes confidence and camaraderie. He pushed no foreign leaders out of the way for the photo op. In fact, they gladly parted to put him in the center of the official picture.

I don’t expect people who are emotionally invested in their argument to accept fact-based numbers, even (or perhaps especially), when they come from vaunted organizations like Gallup and the Economist. It’s really hard for people to change lanes when their gut is in the driver’s seat.

Nearly half of self-proclaimed GOP primary voters — over 40 percent, according to Siena’s polling director — rely on Fox and/or other right-wing media sources for their news:

•91 percent of those who rely on Fox do not think Trump committed serious crimes. Only 5 percent think he did. Among those who rely on mainstream sources, those numbers are 52 and 38% respectively.

•83 percent of those who rely on Fox think Trump merely exercised his right to contest his 2020 loss, vs. only 12% who say he threatened American democracy. Among voters who rely on mainstream news, those numbers are 58 and 37% respectively.

•85 percent of those who rely on Fox say Republicans must stand by Trump, vs. only 9% who disagree. Among those who rely on mainstream sources, those numbers are 49 and 46% respectively.

Rupert has left the building, but News Corp is a family business, and in a true “Succession” moment of life-imitating-art, Lachlan, who wishes only to please his father, defeated his siblings, who favor democracy and fair play. Expect no change in direction.

So, it is up to us to remain vigilant. Unlike Jerry Hall, who called on her former husband, Mick Jagger, to deploy his people to her London residence to secure the cameras Rupert hacked to spy on her, we don’t have the resources of an aging rock star.

©2023 Jon Sinton