Former President Donald Trump recently took to his Truth Social account and wrote:
“Why won’t Fox (Fox & Friends!) show the National Poll that THEY just did. They refuse to put it up, even after spending all of that money. SHOW THE POLL!!! If they don’t show it, I’ll put it up later!”
Why won’t Fox (Fox & Friends!) show the National Poll that THEY just did. They refuse to put it up, even after spending all of that money. SHOW THE POLL!!! If they don’t show it, I’ll put it up later!
(Donald Trump Truth Social Post 07:46 AM EST 9/21/23) pic.twitter.com/id506GkFVD
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) September 21, 2023
It has been noted that the major announcement Thursday that Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of News Corp. sent media reeling, but although it wasn’t necessarily expected, and will be a shock to the system, it isn’t shocking per se that he’s ready to move aside, Mediaite’s Colby Hall said Thursday on NewsNation.
The 92-year-old Murdoch announced his semi-retirement, stepping down as chairman of News Corporation and Fox News parent Fox Corporation, and will assume role of chair-emeritus as his son and current Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch takes the helm.
On NewsNation Live, host Marni Hughes asked Hall whether it’s a surprise.
“I guess yes. I mean, the truth of the matter is that, you know, he’s 92, so it shouldn’t be surprising. What is surprising is that he has forever been synonymous with Fox News,” said Hall. “There’s probably no single person that is more responsible for the state of media, not just political media, all sorts of media than this individual.”
Hall pointed out that Fox News “rose to fame and success by giving voice to the voiceless, sort of this kind of balance to what they consider the left wing media. And there was an argument.”
“But they lost their power,” he said. “Rupert Murdoch stopped being the powerbroker and is now unable to keep, say, for example, former President Trump from rising to power. And so now they’ve become beholden to the voiceless because they’re so afraid of losing viewers.”
“The power broker no longer has as much power,” said Hall. “He’s 92. I think he’s ready to call it a day.”
HUGHES: Okay. So Rupert Murdoch, end of an era, you could say, no matter how you feel about him and Fox News, this is a big news story today. He’s a media tycoon globally. Any surprise that he’s stepping down now at 92?
HALL: I guess yes. I mean, the truth of the matter is that, you know, he’s 92, so it shouldn’t be surprising. What is surprising is that he has forever been synonymous with Fox News. And and just, you know, sort of there’s probably no single person that is more responsible for the state of media, not just political media, all sorts of media than this individual.
He’s — his impact and his footprint and his legacy is massive for better and worse, you could argue. So, yeah, it’s it’s not a surprise that the 92-year-old is stepping down. It is still a shock that kind of the driving force of this massive media empire is now sort of dipping.
He’s checking out and it begs a ton of questions about the future of the network, which is currently been going under some sort of transition and duress based on its reporting of the last few years.
HUGHES: Right. I mean, transition would be a nice way to put it. Turmoil, others might say. I mean, the exit of Roger Ailes and that situation, the Dominion lawsuit, how does something like this, even if he is a figurehead, right, he’s not in the building every day telling you, do this story, not do this story. But impact the day-to-day operations, the morale at a place like Fox News and some of his other media entities.
HALL: Well, I know a lot of people in Fox News. Some are, many are good friends of mine, and we cover them pretty extensively. The specter of Rupert Murdoch looms large over Fox. Like, it’s his – It’s not really a democracy there. It is… It’s, Rupert’s name is mentioned all the time of what he wants and he’s obsessed politically. And yeah, there is definitely turmoil. In fact the cover of New York Magazine right now is in promotion of a book by Michael Wolff, basically talks about end of an era and sort of the death of Fox News.
Now, I think that’s probably overstating it to some degree, but Fox News is in turmoil and without their sort of like fearless leader who loves to consider himself a rogue pirate that can do whatever he wants and stick his thumb in the eye of traditional mainstream media. They are further unmoored from kind of like where they were when they lost Roger Ailes about six or seven years ago.
You know, Fox News gave, it rose to fame and success by giving voice to the voiceless, sort of this kind of balance to what they consider the left wing media. And there was an argument. So they gave voice to the voiceless, but they lost their power. They basically Rupert Murdoch stopped being the powerbroker and is now unable to keep, say, for example, former President Trump from rising to power.
And so now they’ve become beholden to the voiceless because they’re so afraid of losing viewers, and it’s gotten them in a ton of trouble. So I think that’s probably the power broker no longer has as much power. He’s 92. I think he’s ready to call it a day.
HUGHES: Yeah, but is this going to be something, Colby, like Succession, where he steps down but he’s actually not out?
HALL: Well, you know, I got to say, like, Lachlan Murdoch getting the gig and seeing his dad is chair emeritus is probably got, not good news, like always having your dad looking over your shoulder. The thing is Lachlan Murdoch is, you know, heir to the throne. He now sits in the throne. He’s not self-made like Rupert Murdoch.
And a lot of reports I hear is that he he’s not nearly as obsessed and micro-manager of what’s being said on Fox as his father. He lives in Australia. So how does the sort of chair of Fox Corp oversee the network in the USA while being ensconced in Australia because, you know, he was catching so much heat in Hollywood from people, his, you know, sort of media elite friends who were disgusted at what was on Fox News.
So, you know, I think this ultimately is good news for viewers, viewers who want straight news. And I think the de-emphasis on naked politicization from Fox and other networks, you know, is probably a good thing for the body politic.
HUGHES: I suspected you would bring up Trump. I was curious about it, too, the Trump factor in all of this. Our colleagues at the Hill recently reporting, I think the headline was ‘Rupert Murdoch, Trump says, is a globalist trying to tear me down.’ He’s been critical that Rupert Murdoch was trying to push Ron DeSantis in front of him. He didn’t attend the first GOP debate because of their hostile relationship. How much do you think that impacted the timing of this going into the 2024 election?
HALL: Well, I think it’s significant. I think it’s a lot. I mean, you look at the nearly $800 billion defamation payment that they gave to Dominion because they erroneously promoted Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. And they did so because they were horribly afraid of losing an audience. And they weren’t they didn’t give the audience the truth. They continued to parrot what was clearly not real and not true to the tune of an $800 billion lawsuit.
So, you know, I think, you know, Rupert Murdoch finds himself between a rock and a hard place, between a viewership and audience that is still very much committed to what Trump says, and Trump who is going after. I suspect Trump will take a victory lap, which is, you know, somewhat deserved, not entirely deserved, but that’s what he does.
So I think this has a lot to do with 2024. And that leaves a wide open question what will happen? They tried to get DeSantis up in front. That has not worked. It’ll be fun to watch, you know, see what happens in the 2024 election.
HUGHES: And what changes as this sets into motion. All right. Colby Hall, as always, thank you.”
