James Murdoch criticizes ‘media property owners’ who have unleashed ‘treacherous’ forces with claims of election denial

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Murdoch did not explicitly mention Fox News, which is controlled by his father and brother Lachlan Murdoch. But it was clear that, even with other outlets in mind, his focus was on the right-wing cable network when he made those comments in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday. Since the election was called for Joe Biden, some Fox News personalities have reinforced President Trump’s false claims about electoral fraud and sowed suspicion in the voting system.

“The damage is enormous,” said Murdoch, referring to the misinformation about elections that has spread in the US. “The looting of the Capitol is positive proof that what we thought was dangerous is indeed very, very bad. Those outlets spreading lies to their audiences have unleashed treacherous and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years to come.”

“I hope the people who didn’t think it was so dangerous now understand it and stop it,” Murdoch added.

After the interview, he and his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, issued a joint statement to the Financial Times.

“Spreading disinformation – be it elections, public health or climate change – has real consequences,” the two said. “Many media property owners have as much responsibility for this as the elected officials who know the truth, but instead choose to spread lies. We hope that the horrible scenes we’ve all seen will finally convince these enablers to remove the poisonous ones. politics they once promoted. and forever. “

A spokesman for Murdoch did not respond to a request for comment.

The younger Murdoch broke up dramatically with his family in August 2020, resigning from the board of directors of News Corp, his family’s publishing empire. Murdoch said at the time that he left the company because of “disagreements over certain editorial content published” through his news outlets and “certain other strategic decisions.”

It wouldn’t be the first time that James Murdoch has spoken publicly about the coverage of the news broadcasts in his father’s media empire. A spokesman for James and his wife Kathryn told the Daily Beast that the couple was frustrated “with some of News Corp and Fox’s coverage of climate change when wildfires ripped through Australia last year. In an interview with The New Yorker in 2019, he said, “There are opinions about Fox that I really disagree with.”

Murdoch has shown other signs that he is at odds with the conservative political views of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. He previously donated to Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and was concerned about climate change denial.

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