To promote CNN’s new doc-series entitled The Murdochs: Empire of Influence, consulting producers Jim Rutenburg and Jonathan Mahler joined Thursday’s Don Lemon Tonight to discuss the namesake family and accuse them of having “a major political bias.” Meanwhile, Lemon alleged “the journalistic integrity is not always there.”
Lemon got things started, “So, Jim, I'm going to start with you. The largest media empire in history. Give us some perspective on just how big, how powerful, how profitable the Murdoch family empire really is.”
Rutenburg, who is also a writer-at-large for the New York Times, ran through the list of outlets owned by the Murdochs, “Just look at what they have here in the United States. The Fox News Channel, the Fox broadcast network, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post. In the U.K., they've got The Sun, they've got The Times of London. They control a lot of that newspaper market. They control a lot of the news market in Australia, that's, you know, a lot of the English-speaking world. They control the news and a lot of entertainment.”
“A lot of [Fox] entertainment” has been acquired by Disney in recent, but Lemon continued as he shifted the conversation to Mahler, “And it's not always journalistically, there’s-- the journalistic integrity is not always there when it comes to the Murdochs' media empire.”
Mahler, who when he isn’t producing CNN documentaries is a New York Times Magazine staff writer, added, “There's certainly a major political bias and there is a preference for a, sort of, tabloid-style, I guess you would say.”
The New York Post tabloid broke the Hunter Biden laptop story that most of the rest of the media simply ignored. While The Sun tabloid has reliably endorsed the Conservative Party since 2010, it’s Scottish derivative has endorsed the left-wing Scottish National Party in two of the last three elections. Meanwhile, the The Times, endorsed Barack Obama in 2012.
That’s more diversity than either CNN or the New York Times, which hasn’t endorsed a Republican since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. Not only that, the two outlets work together as this CNN documentary is based off New York Times reporting.
Still, Lemon, who is not immune to tabloid behavior on CNN, wondered, “You cannot ignore the political influence of Rupert Murdoch that he has had on the culture and on the world. How do you think it has been most strongly felt?”
For Mahler, it’s not British newspapers or the New York Post that has done the most damage, but Fox News:
I mean, I think that we probably got the-- our, kind of, clearest understanding of it, honestly, during the Trump era, where we saw the network, Fox News network, kind of -- effectively, kind of, merge with the Trump White House and amplify—amplify-- the president's messages, also in many cases influence the president's policy choices. And so, I mean, that in some ways is almost kind of the culmination of -- for Rupert Murdoch, a lifetime of the accumulation of power and influence, it finally, kind of, came to a head with the Trump White House.
All this on the network that went into mourning over the departure of Jeff Zucker, who thought it was CNN’s job to be an extension of the Trump opposition.
This segment was sponsored by Discover.
Here is a transcript for the September 23 show:
CNN Don Lemon Tonight
9/22/2022
11:52 PM ET
DON LEMON: So, Jim, I'm going to start with you. The largest media empire in history. Give us some perspective on just how big, how powerful, how profitable the Murdoch family empire really is.
JIM RUTENBURG: Just look at what they have here in the United States. The Fox News Channel, the Fox broadcast network, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post. In the U.K., they've got The Sun, they've got The Times of London. They control a lot of that newspaper market. They control a lot of the news market in Australia, that's, you know, a lot of the English-speaking world. They control the news and a lot of entertainment.
LEMON: And it's not always journalistically, there’s-- the journalistic integrity is not always there when it comes to the Murdochs' media empire.
JONATHAN MAHLER: There's certainly a major political bias and there is a preference for a, sort of, tabloid-style, I guess you would say.
LEMON: You cannot ignore the political influence of Rupert Murdoch that he has had on the culture and on the world. How do you think it has been most strongly felt?
MAHLER: I mean, I think that we probably got the-- our, kind of, clearest understanding of it, honestly, during the Trump era, where we saw the network, Fox News network, kind of -- effectively, kind of, merge with the Trump White House and amplify—amplify-- the president's messages, also in many cases influence the president's policy choices. And so, I mean, that in some ways is almost kind of the culmination of -- for Rupert Murdoch, a lifetime of the accumulation of power and influence, it finally, kind of, came to a head with the Trump White House.
