Posted on 12/04/2020 5:18:22 AM PST by Red Badger
The controlling shareholders of Fox News, the Murdoch family and its 89-year-old patriarch Rupert Murdoch, have a long history of backing Democrats like Hillary Clinton and their liberal causes.
After four years of fairly critical coverage of President Trump (Fox “confirmed”, for example, a skepticism-inducing report that Trump called fallen soldiers “suckers and losers,” a claim that even Trump foe John Bolton denied,) many conservatives are re-evaluating Fox News’ true commitment to “fair and balanced” media.
Federal election records show that Murdoch has donated to far-left Democratic politicians including John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Chuck Schumer, Anthony Weiner and even Hillary Clinton, for whom he hosted a fundraiser in 2006, just preceding her first presidential campaign.
Reporting on the fundraiser, CBS News’ Dan Collins, exclaimed that “Rupert Murdoch Loves Hillary Clinton.”
But it does not stop there.
FAIR, a liberal media group, even bragged about how much Fox News (through its parent company News Corp.) was donating to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign against Trump. FAIR wrote:
“All of the broadcast giants are on board. Clinton is the largest individual recipient of campaign donations from Comcast (NBC News, MSNBC), Time Warner (CNN), News Corp (Fox News), CBS Television and Walt Disney (ABC News).”
No longer viewed as a stalwart of conservative causes, the Murdochs, including Fox News, have been moving to the left for years coinciding with the Democratic Party’s cementing itself as the party of the global elite.
The Murdochs and News Corp. have been big donors to the Clinton Foundation, an organization that includes progressive activists George Soros, Haim Saban and many other left-wing billionaires. They have given literally millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation.
Worrisome to conservatives should be New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd’s assertion that after Rupert Murdoch passes, his son James, a strong liberal who has opposed Trump, will join with his left-leaning two sisters in controlling the family’s vast media empire, including Fox.
James and his wife Kathryn, considered a liberal power couple, are multi-million-dollar donors to Democratic candidates and causes. In this election cycle, alone, they wrote a check for $1 million to try to help Chuck Schumer and the Democrats win the Senate.
At long last, longtime Fox viewers are finally grasping the magnitude of the organization’s ideological shift, at the behest of President Trump’s awareness campaign.
However, in actuality, this shift has been taking place for years.
Glenn Beck, a mainstream and popular conservative commentator tossed from Fox’s evening line-up, said he was prohibited from criticizing George Soros on his show.
His claim was perhaps demonstrated as true this past September, when Fox News hosts cut off former Speaker Newt Gingrich, after he started discussing Soros funded initiatives.
The transcript of that exchange was eerie and further portrays Fox News’ true political allegiances:
"I'm not sure we need to bring George Soros into this," said co-host Melissa Francis.
"I was going to say you get the last word, Speaker," Fox host Harris Faulkner said.
"He paid for it. I mean, why can't we discuss the fact that millions of dollars..." Gingrich said before co-host Marie Harf responded.
"No, he didn't. I agree with Melissa. George Soros doesn't need to be a part of this conversation," Harf said.
"OK. So, it's verboten [to talk about Soros]," Gingrich replied.
"OK. We're going to move on," Faulkner said.
The inclusion of this transcript herein is not an attempt to peddle an erroneous Soros conspiracy theory. Rather, it is merely meant to illuminate that Fox News may be prohibiting criticism of one the most prolific radical left-wing donors in this country’s history. Why? Perhaps because they are sympathetic to the liberal causes he so intensely supports.
Soros, apparently, is not the only topic of discussion barred from Fox’s airwaves. Long-time Fox contributor Dick Morris stated that “Fox always tried to tell [him] never to criticize China when you’re on our air. [He couldn’t] believe the censorship that goes on [there].”
President Trump, never one shy to criticize news outlets, has made his determination about Fox News’ credibility.
Shortly, after the election, he tweeted:
@FoxNews daytime ratings have completely collapsed. Weekend daytime even WORSE. Very sad to watch this happen, but they forgot what made them successful, what got them there. They forgot the Golden Goose. The biggest difference between the 2016 Election, and 2020, was @FoxNews!
11:10 AM · Nov 12, 2020·Twitter for iPhone
[Link: https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1326920264203046915]
Speaking of the election, Fox put a lifelong Democratic political operative, Arnon Mishkin, in charge of their election night “call” desk.
Prior to election night, Mishkin had “been skeptical of Mr. Trump’s chances on social media and in occasional Fox appearances.”
Mishkin is a lifelong Democrat, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and built his career working exclusively for liberal politicians.
The unsurprising result of Fox’s decision to have Mishkin calling the shots was seen on election night, when Fox News viewers were outraged to see the network refuse to call Florida for Trump, a state he won handily, while they were the first to call Arizona -- a much tighter affair -- for Biden.
Fox News’ swing to the left started long before Mishkin’s controversial Arizona call on election night.
For years, anchors like Neil Cavuto and Andrew Napolitano have derided and repeatedly criticized President Trump’s (often mainstream conservative) policies and proposals. Indeed, the Chris Wallace’s 2020 smug presidential debate moderation was one of the most bewildering and decried moments leading up to election day.
As ratings amongst its viewers continue to evaporate, it is obvious these blips are the result of a larger ideological shift within the Fox News Organization.
Today, instead, President Trump himself is encouraging his followers to tune in to Newsmax TV and OANN.
Fox News’ long-held monopoly over GOP politics has been fraught with risk and posed great danger to conservatives. For too long, viewers have been fed a false bill of goods.
Just ask Donald Trump about it.
Elliot Fuchs is a political consultant, commentator, and writer. You can follow him on twitter @Elliot_Fuchs.
I thought we already knew that.
The answers about this have been on Freep for 15 yrs give or take.
The fact that the Murdochs are Libs isn’t a secret. Most of Murdoch’s media holdings worldwide are Liberal.
Fox News was a business decision to fill an underserved market niche to make money, which is the point of a business. It was Roger Ailes that kept Fox News on the conservative side, but they always advertised themselves as “fair and balanced,” so they always employed their share of libs for on-air talent.
They’ll find out soon enough that becoming just another liberal news outlet isn’t as profitable as their previous business strategy, which is the beauty of the free market.
Written by a lib, I nevertheless strongly recommend “The Loudest Voice,” a bio of Roger Ailes.
His treatment of the 2016 GOP debate where Megyn Kelly attacked Trump is really insightful. These orders for Kelly, Baier and Wallace to go after Trump came STRAIGHT FROM MURDOCH (Ruprecht).
BTW, I have a big piece on Faux coming out in the “Chronicles” very soon (don’t know exactly when it’s released).
I knew Rupert was a liberal, but I figured he let FNC go right without interference because it was good business. Rupert’s kids are another story. They are committed to the leftist cause, and they want to be part of the crowd, one of the cool kids, partying with the MSNBC and CNN folks.
The Murdoch kids will not tolerate slimy, moronic conservative nationalist ideas on their channel. They don’t need the money, so driving FNC into the sewer isn’t a big deal to them.
I’m happy to oblige. I don’t watch FNC anymore. I kind of miss Tucker, but not enough to go back.
They will all be together ................... in HELL..............partying?...not so much............
To Foxnews,
I would like not to hate your company.
With pleasure, I will never go to your channel.
...and your website is unwieldy, so I don’t go past the headlines EVER anymore.
Adios FOREVER.
Haven’t watched Fox since November 5th. Will not ever again. Enough other resources out there.
Amen
interesting. Thanks!
Fox can’t be fixed. Just like the democrat party can’t be fixed.
CNN and Fox may be the same old song and dance. They all have a political agenda. They cannot do what is right for the country.
Foreign ownership of domestic networks seems like a risky scheme to me. Maybe it is just me.
Especially when you see what they contribute to the degradation of our liberties and freedoms under the guise of being a news org. false advertising should not be rewarded.. but is.. another gripe against our society and what it will put up with as it is gutted daily and fails to respond for fear of being destroyed by an all too powerful media.
Disney owns ABC.
Vanguard Group Inc is a major stockholder of Disney.
In October 2020, Vanguard returned about $21 billion in managed assets to GOVERNMENT CLIENTS IN CHINA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vanguard_Group
AT&T owns CNN.
Major shareholder, Vanguard Group Inc.
Melissa Francis, Harris Faulkner, Marie Harf, Arnon Mishkin, Neil Cavuto, Andrew Napolitano, Chris Wallace....
The rot is deep at Fox.
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