Tail wagging the dog in Rupert Murdoch’s moment of truth

The Australian-American media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s sometimes breathtaking talent for walking away from tight situations has been tested by his admission Fox News commentators endorsed false allegations by former US president Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News and Fox Corp for $2.37 billion for defamation, arguing internal messages and depositions by Fox personnel prove the network knowingly spread falsehoods to lift ratings. In excerpts from a deposition unsealed on Monday, Murdoch, who is Fox Corp chairman, was asked whether he was aware some of the network’s commentators endorsed false election claims. Said Murdoch: “Yes. They endorsed.” He also wished the network had pushed back harder on such conspiracy theories.

Loading

Dominion claimed some Fox News employees deliberately amplified false claims by Trump’s supporters that its machines had changed votes in the election and that Fox provided a platform for guests to make false and defamatory statements about the company. Dominion lawyers contend executives in the “chain of command” at both Fox News and Fox Corp knew the network was broadcasting “known lies, had the power to stop it, but chose to let it continue”.

Another election technology firm, London headquartered Smartmatic, is also suing Fox Corporation for $3.56 billion over the election coverage, alleging the network’s “disinformation campaign” had a direct and harmful impact on the company’s ability to conduct business in the US and around the world. In an unrelated case, Murdoch’s son Lachlan, as chief executive of the Fox Corporation, has filed defamation proceedings against Private Media, the publisher of Crikey, and others associated with the Melbourne-based company over a June 29 article naming the Murdoch family as “unindicted co-conspirators” of Trump following the deadly 2021 US Capitol riots. The trial is due to start in October.

Loading

A proprietor known throughout the Australian media industry for exercising tight control over his far-flung empire, Murdoch’s admission raises the possibility that the tail is wagging the dog.

He has walked away before saying he did not know what his staff were doing. In 2013, Murdoch told the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee inquiring into phone taping of victims of crime and celebrities by British newspapers he was unaware hacking was more widespread than originally claimed, and he had “clearly” been misled by some of his staff. “This is the most humble day of my life,” Murdoch said.

For 71 years, Australians have watched Murdoch spread from ownership of his late father’s puny newspaper The News in Adelaide to create the world’s most powerful family-owned media empire. He bought tabloids in Sydney, London and New York, before acquiring the British broadsheet The Times and then the Wall Street Journal. He became a naturalised US citizen in 1986 to buy into American television and the following year captured the Melbourne-based Herald and Weekly Times, making him Australia’s biggest proprietor. There are also film and television companies across the globe.