{"id":28281,"date":"2025-07-28T20:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28281\/"},"modified":"2025-07-28T20:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T20:13:07","slug":"murdoch-v-trump-why-the-flawed-media-titan-could-be-the-final-protector-of-press-freedom-jane-martinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/28281\/","title":{"rendered":"Murdoch v Trump: why the flawed media titan could be the final protector of press freedom | Jane Martinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years before Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal, the writer John Lanchester suggested that his primary motivation \u2013 more than ideology or even money \u2013 was a \u201clove of crises<\/a>, of the point when everything seems about to be lost\u201d.<\/p>\n

More than two decades later, is the crisis in the US media, one in which everything seems about to be lost, motivating Murdoch to take on the most powerful man in the world? It is as good a reason as many of those given over the past week for the fact that the billionaire whose Fox News<\/a> channel has acted as a Trump cheerleader throughout is now, alone among US media titans, preparing to do battle in the courts.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s onslaught on the US media \u2013 withdrawing federal funds, banning reporters and launching multi-billion-dollar lawsuits \u2013 has led once-renowned defenders of media freedom such as the Washington Post, ABC News and CBS to crumple, either changing their editorial policies or agreeing to apparently frivolous settlements. Yet ranting calls to both the WSJ editor, Emma Tucker, and his old frenemy Rupert failed to prevent the publication of a story suggesting he had sent a hand-drawn picture<\/a> of a naked woman to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein with the words: \u201cHappy Birthday \u2013 and may every day be another wonderful secret.\u201d Last week, he launched a $10bn lawsuit<\/a> over this \u201cfake\u201d. After the WSJ doubled down with stories saying Trump had been told he was in the Epstein files, sources close to Murdoch report<\/a> that, at 94, he refuses to be \u201cintimidated\u201d.<\/p>\n

He is also enhancing his reputation as the most mercurial media titan. Media veteran Tina Brown asked how the world had come to depend on \u201cthe Darth Vader of media<\/a>\u201d to stand up for press freedom, while a thoughtful friend asked: \u201cSuppose Murdoch had a Damascene conversion and sought to atone for his many sins \u2013 would we welcome him as an ally?\u201d Can a man whose companies have paid out more than a billion pounds for either knowingly broadcasting lies or for hacking phones be preparing to die as the Severus Snape of the media world, the final protector of press freedom?<\/p>\n

Two years ago, when Murdoch announced he was standing down (sort of), he told staff to \u201cmake the most of this great opportunity to improve the world we live in\u201d, a line that seemed ridiculous to me<\/a> at the time. Is his battle with this madman in the White House really his final chance at leaving the world a better place?<\/p>\n

Before Murdoch watchers get carried away, there are of course a number of rational and personal reasons for Murdoch\u2019s decision not to kowtow to Trump.<\/p>\n

Throughout his long career at the nexus of media and power, one thing that has been consistent is Murdoch\u2019s desire to pick the winning side. Trump\u2019s friendship with Epstein is the only issue currently close to dividing him from a Maga power base that also forms the heart of the Fox News audience.<\/p>\n

And Murdoch\u2019s enthusiasm for the former real estate mogul has never been wholehearted. After the 6 January attack on the US Capitol in 2021 he sent an email to a former executive, saying: \u201cWe want to make Trump a nonperson<\/a>.\u201d Despite this, the support of his Fox News channel helped elect a man he has little respect for.<\/p>\n

Not only is he spreading his bets on the Epstein fallout, Murdoch is also riding two horses by allowing his respected financial news organisation to defend its reporting, while Fox continues to downplay the story over Trump\u2019s card.<\/p>\n

A newsman at his core, Murdoch is just as likely to give his editors stories as ask for them to be spiked. But Murdoch is also known to have kept a particularly respectful distance from the Journal\u2019s editorials since buying it in 2007; one called Trump\u2019s tariff plans \u201cthe dumbest trade war in history<\/a>\u201d. Besides, defending its journalism is good for business in a landscape in which the owners of CBS cancel a hit show<\/a> critical of Trump and pay millions to his presidential library<\/a> just days before receiving a government blessing for a huge deal.<\/p>\n

As always with Murdoch, there is also the psychodrama of an old man whose life is closer to Shakespearean than most. Michael Wolff, responsible for several of the many books on both men, tells me that Murdoch\u2019s support for his journalists is an \u201cold man\u2019s revenge\u201d after the Fox fallout divided his family and prompted an inheritance battle<\/a> still playing out in the family courts. Besides, says Wolff, Murdoch wants revenge on Trump simply for winning when Murdoch did \u201ceverything to make sure [he] didn\u2019t\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s behaviour in his second term \u2013 using his powers to further any whim or grievance, and approaching absolutism \u2013 could also have revealed to Murdoch the end result of a truly free market. What is to stop Emperor Trump from stripping his commercial empire of the protection of the rule of law once the old man is gone, for example?<\/p>\n

Murdoch is undoubtedly a flawed hero. And there is a chance after all that the drawing is a hoax, as Trump insists, despite the Journal\u2019s robust defence. Murdoch\u2019s papers have been tricked before. But for now, he is the closest thing journalism has to a Trojan horse, invited into the inner sanctum yet still apparently ready to do battle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Years before Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal, the writer John Lanchester suggested that his primary motivation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-28281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}