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Rupert Murdoch’s approach was not without controversy. He used his power to influence politics in the USA.
What is it about? Media mogul Rupert steps down as chairman of Fox and News Corp. back, ending a media career that spanned more than seven decades. The 92-year-old is handing over the baton to his son Lachlan, it was announced on Thursday. He will become the sole chairman of News Corp. and continue as chairman and CEO of Fox News, both companies said. Lachlan Murdoch was born in 1971. He is the eldest son of Rupert Murdoch and has two siblings, an older sister and a younger brother, as well as three half-sisters.
Legend: Lachlan Murdoch takes over from his father. Keystone/Evan Agostini
What is the Murdoch Empire? Rupert Murdoch’s media group includes over a hundred newspapers as well as several TV stations and film studios on every continent. These include the conservative TV channel Fox News in the USA, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, the tabloid The Sun in Great Britain, the Times London and the Sunday Times in Australia. Murdoch is also involved with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Rupert Murdoch started out in Australia when he inherited two local newspapers and a radio station from his father at the age of 22.
Murdoch was the first to come up with the idea that news should no longer be made as objective reporting, but rather as opinion.
Why was Rupert Murdoch so successful? Political scientist Thomas Jäger from the University of Cologne says: “Murdoch was the first to come up with the idea that news should no longer be made as objective reporting, but as an opinion. That was new.” It was no longer about providing a broad population with factual news, but rather about retaining a specific target group with opinions. “This meant that he was able to generate large amounts of income because he had the right instinct. With Fox News he served the right-wing in the USA with opinion-forming.”
Caption: The way Fox News delivers news is highly controversial. “Fox made lying normal” and “Tucker’s lies are worse than Santos’s.” The poster alludes to Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. Santos refers to presidential candidate Ron Santos. Keystone/Justin Lane
What exactly did he do differently? “The news he brought was a show,” said the expert. He no longer wanted to tell people what was in the world, but rather he reflected to them how they see the world. Jäger gives a concrete example: “During Obama’s health care reform, for example, Obama was easily portrayed as Hitler. The insurance system was called socialism.” In doing so, he managed to keep people angry – something that is practiced even more in social media today.
The Tucker Carlson affair
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Caption: Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News overnight. Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Carlson was an anchor on Fox News from 2009 to 2023. In his show Tucker Carlson Tonight (2016 to 2023), he spread conspiracy theories about topics such as immigration, Corona, visits from extraterrestrials, the storming of the Capitol and the Ukraine war, in which he adopted claims from Russian propaganda.
Fox News ended its collaboration with Carlson in April 2023, shortly after the broadcaster and Dominion Voting Systems agreed out of court to pay around $787 million in damages. Fox News was sued for spreading false information about the outcome of the presidential election.
The reasons for Carlson’s firing are not publicly known.
Did the Murdoch media influence politics? “Of course,” says the expert. Rupert Murdoch was concerned – especially with the TV channel Fox News in the USA – with enforcing a certain political direction. Rupert Murdoch also initially supported Donald Trump and later distanced himself from him. “He always linked his goals to tabloidization. For him it was always about breadth, the news should always be shallow.” In the bubble that is home to conspiracy theories, America First and right-wing ideologies, this is a successful business concept.
Is Rupert Murdoch now giving up his influence? We’ll have to wait and see, says Jäger. His son should continue the whole thing in his spirit. “I would be surprised if Rupert Murdoch didn’t continue to hold things together in the background,” says the political scientist.
2023-09-22 14:11:10
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