Rupert Murdoch-- Beseiged On All Sides-- Should Be Deported For Treason Against His Adopted Country

Just in time for the advent of the final season of Succession, the actual Murdoch clan is beset by all its circling enemies at the same time— from MAGA-world to the Democratic Party. On Friday night, Bannon kicked off his CPAC rant by attacking and then threatening Fox News, whining that Fox hasn’t invited Trump onto the network since he announced his campaign 4 months ago. He personalized the enemy for the MAGAts: Rupert Murdoch and his family, who he called "a bunch of foreigners [who] have given this country nothing... Murdoch, you’ve deemed Trump’s not going to be president,” Bannon growled. “But we deem that you’re not going to have a network, because we’re going to fight you every step of the way."

Far from random broadsides, Bannon’s screed against Fox News was the latest in what has become a hot war between MAGA world and the longtime conservative channel. Trump himself has gone off on Fox News before, often for coverage he has deemed unfair. But the current state of affairs— coming at the start of what promises to be a deeply contested GOP primary— is as strained as it has ever been.

…Fox Radio skipped its usual booth on media row at CPAC this year. Fox Nation didn’t livestream or sponsor receptions as it has in years past. There were no primetime Fox News stars like Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, or Tucker Carlson scheduled to speak on stage— a contrast to years past, where Fox stars were in heavy rotation on the stage or in the halls.

“Dominion’s lawsuit has always been more about what will generate headlines than what can withstand legal and factual scrutiny, as illustrated by them now being forced to slash their fanciful damages demand by more than half a billion dollars after their own expert debunked its implausible claims. Their summary judgment motion took an extreme, unsupported view of defamation law that would prevent journalists from basic reporting and their efforts to publicly smear FOX for covering and commenting on allegations by a sitting President of the United States should be recognized for what it is: a blatant violation of the First Amendment,” a Fox News spokesperson said in a statement.

The absence of Fox News at CPAC has fed larger questions about the role the Murdoch-owned network is gunning to play in the Republican primary. Trump’s likely 2024 rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has been featured across Murdoch-owned entities as he promotes his recently published memoir. The anti-Woke activist Vivek Ramaswamy launched his presidential campaign with an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show. And former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has repeatedly appeared on the network, with her launch announcement covered live on TV.

All of this comes as Fox is facing a defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, which is asking for $1.6 billion in damages over the role the network played in covering conspiracies around the 2020 election. Recent depositions reveal that high-level network officials privately cast doubt on Trump’s claims that the election was stolen, even as on-air voices were backing Trump up on the false narrative.

While Trump himself has not been interviewed lately on Fox News airwaves– Semafor reported he is facing a “soft ban” by the network– he does continue to receive coverage and his campaign is referenced by hosts.

For his part, Trump has ramped up his attacks on the longtime conservative television channel, in recent days sharing multiple posts on his Truth Social platform critical of the channel and its owner, Rupert Murdoch. “Too many incompetent RINOS at FoxNews!” Trump posted on Thursday. A day earlier, Trump called Murdoch and other Fox executives a “group of MAGA Hating Globalist RINOS” who should “get out of the News Business as soon as possible.”

With Fox stars out of the picture, attendees at CPAC flocked to popular right-wing alternatives like Bannon’s War Room, which hosted its podcast live, along with Newsmax, OAN, Right Side Broadcasting Network and others.

Democrats’ feelings towards Fox aren’t warm and fuzzy either. “The thunderclap of stories showing Fox News’ role in pushing 2020 election fraud conspiracies and aiding Donald Trump’s campaign,” wrote Chris Cadelago yesterday, “has intensified calls among Democrats to black out the network.” It wasn’t just the evidence we all already knew about concerning the way the network caters to the GOP, it was also the dirty pool revealed when Murdoch admitted he shared secret Biden ads with the Trump campaign before they were aired. [He’s being sued for that now.] “For years,” wrote Cadelago, “Democrats have been engaged in a debate over whether the party should shun the cable news giant or grudgingly use its airwaves to run counterprogramming. But in the midst of the latest saga, a newer type of reaction has emerged: that they should sever all ties, including any money spent advertising on the network.”

There is no indication, at this juncture, that major Democratic entities are ready to halt their ad buys on Fox News, let alone its many affiliates. But that is partially because few Democratic campaigns or causes are currently spending ad money. In the interim, the Dominion lawsuit revelations have led to louder calls for the party to make a firm break from any involvement with the cable channel, whom they view as functionally a campaign arm for Republicans. Democrats spanning the ideological spectrum have even started calling on the White House Correspondents’ Association— the group of news reporters advocating for press access— to boot Fox News reporters from the briefing room.

“They are arguably the most important entity of the American right and the Republican Party,” said Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, suggesting that The Associated Press include in its stylebook that Fox News is not a news organization. “There needs to be a serious conversation now about whether Fox can continue to be a member of the White House Correspondents Association. Keeping them there seems not to be OK.”

Even with its reputation for airing reliably conservative content, Fox News remains a major player in Democratic politics. More self-identified Democrats consistently watch the network than any other cable channel, according to Nielsen MRI Fusion. And a faction of Democrats sees value in both reaching those voters and trying to persuade the independents and Republican-leaning ones who tune into the channel.

In the 2020 campaign cycle, the network hosted a presidential debate, accepted some $7.4 million in advertising from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to Fox News, according to the tracking firm AdImpact, and held town halls with Democratic primary contenders. While Biden administration officials have selectively chosen to appear on Fox News for interviews, the president’s aides have also sought out opportunities to use the network as a cudgel against Republican lawmakers— whether on economic issues or matters of public safety.

…On the House floor, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) teed off on censorship legislation, arguing “it would still be strange to say that Fox News was censoring itself” when it knowingly amplified 2020 election lies. MoveOn, the liberal advocacy outfit, urged cable service chief executives to make Fox News optional. And the Progressive Change Campaign Committee called for the White House Correspondents’ Association to remove Fox from the press pool.

Congress’ top two Democrats also weighed in, writing to Murdoch to urge his network to stop spreading false election narratives and “admit on the air that they were wrong to engage in such negligent behavior.”

…Intermittent lashings of Fox News from the left are not a new occurrence. Democratic politicians from the White House to statehouses have long weighed whether trying to reach the network’s coveted audience is worth the cost of appearing to legitimize the network. Those who advocate for engagement say it’s folly to imagine the channel will have less impact if the party ignores it. Those who call for a boycott argue it makes no sense to push the party’s agenda on daytime airwaves only to find it demonized at night. And increasingly, they think that whatever editorial line existed between its dayside hosts and its bombastic prime time names has become blurrier and blurrier.

As the debate starts anew, several top strategists and communications aides said they believe the Dominion revelations will spur legitimate news organizations to stop treating Fox as one of their own.

“Democrats reached a verdict on Fox News many years ago. The only open question is does the rest of the political media ecosystem treat them as legitimate or not?” asked Eric Schultz, a deputy press secretary under former President Barack Obama. “The latest revelations mostly call into question everybody else’s long-standing defense of the network.”

But even those, like Schultz, who argue that Fox News’ reputation should be permanently tainted by the Dominion suit are reluctant to call for Democrats to completely shut out the network.

“It would be like unilaterally not engaging on Facebook— in many ways a toxic platform but where millions of people get their information,” he said.

James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist, said there was no reason to approach the network differently now because of the Dominion lawsuit revelations.

“They get viewers only because they tell viewers what they want to hear or see,” he said. “They want to be brainwashed. They show up at the front door of the cleaners. They leave their brain there— ‘wash and fold and I’ll pick it up.’”

Instead, Carville offered that there was a utility to having the network as a foil, noting that Biden’s White House hasn’t suffered from having Fox News in the briefing room, led by network scion Peter Doocy.

“Sites on the left love when they smack Peter Doocy back,” he said. “And usually, for more than half the people who see it, it’s Fox that looks stupid.”