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Rupert Murdoch and Lochlan Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch resigns from media empire
Rupert Murdoch announced he is stepping down as chairman of his Fox News and News Corp global media empire, and relinquishing control to his son, Lachlan Murdoch, in a succession that raises questions about the influence of the Murdoch dynasty in the 2024 US elections and beyond.
Over his 70 year career, Murdoch dominated conservative media baron in the US, UK and Australia, using his outlets to sway the political pendulum to the right and act as a kingmaker within the Republican Party. Fox News was instrumental in bringing Donald Trump to power in 2016.
The transition comes at a difficult time for the conglomerate, which paid out a $787.5 million settlement and faces multiple shareholder lawsuits over spreading misinformation during the 2020 elections. It is also seeing ratings stagnate as viewers move towards extreme outlets like Newsmax and individual creators like Tucker Carlson– whom Fox ousted earlier this year.
Ahead of the 2024 election, whether Fox News will be able to maintain its power without Murdoch and amidst a more competitive and decentralized political media landscape remains to be seen.
When did people stop trusting the media?
There was a time, not so long ago, when people trusted the media, and not just their specific corners of it. Walter Cronkite. Edward R. Murrow. Dan Rather. These were people all Americans relied on to understand the world, and they did so without suspicion. Today, we live in a different reality (or multiple realities, in fact). But according to media historian Nicole Hemmer, the war on trust began decades ago.
Starting back in the 1970s, Hemmer says, "...it was advantageous to the Republican Party to try to create an alternative to the mainstream media, an alternative to the Walter Cronkites...We see that with Fox News in the '90s, but also with the rise of talk radio, and then to some extent, the rise of alternative social networks that's happening now."
Hemmer joined media journalist and former CNN host Brian Stelter on a special panel interview for GZERO World with Ian Bremmer. The two discussed how the hyper-fragmented media landscape in which we find ourself has actually been decades in the making. And they look ahead to the 2024 election and consider how media companies can rebuild trust with Americans during such a crucial time for democracy.
Watch this episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer: "Politics, trust & the media in the age of misinformation"
Watch GZERO World with Ian Bremmer at gzeromedia.com/gzeroworld or on US public television. Check local listings.
Tucker Carlson chats with people backstage before speaking during the FAMiLY Leadership Summit in Des Moines, Iowa.
Tucker, the Twitter phoenix
Just a week ago, Tucker Carlson was in the wilderness after being fired from Fox News. This week, in a move that could upend the media and social media landscapes ahead of 2024, America’s most popular TV news host announced that he is bringing his show to Twitter.
In a video post on Tuesday, Tucker said he will launch a news show on Twitter, a first for the social media platform. Carlson, whom Fox ousted unexpectedly in the wake of its $790 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, said that because “there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech, the only one is Twitter.”
By any measure, this is a big catch for Elon Musk. Carlson is one of the most influential voices in the growing populist movement within the Republican Party and the single most-watched nighttime TV host, with a regular nightly audience averaging about 3.5 million people.
What might this mean for Twitter? Musk wants Carlson to be the first megastar of his Twitter 2.0 — and to showcase the money and influence his subscription revenue-sharing model could offer content creators. For Twitter, giving Carlson a show marks a transition towards more traditional TV-style broadcasting that could completely transform the platform.
Making this work is crucial for Musk, whose erratic management and drastic changes have put a dent in Twitter’s ad revenue since he took over last year. On Thursday, Musk announced that he had hired a new CEO; he's reportedly in talks with NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino for the role.
Carlson, of course, has his own history of alienating advertisers at Fox. But Musk is betting that Carlson is the key to getting a new subscription revenue model off the ground, and he’s willing to take more risks with his ad revenue to get there. While the specifics haven’t been announced, under Twitter Blue’s new model followers will pay a low fee to subscribe and gain access to Carlson’s content.
But … will Carlson’s audience follow him? It’s unclear how many of his regular viewers are already on Twitter, or how many will meet him there. Carlson’s cable audience was engaged and receptive to his narrative, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into tweets. Carlson is popular with boomers, who do not make up a large portion of Twitter users. What’s more, the experience of scrolling through Twitter is very different from planting yourself in front of the TV for 30 minutes.
Another big question: Call the lawyers!
There are a few legal wildcards. For one thing, Carlson is still trying to get out of his Fox News contract, which continues to pay him $20 million a year but also includes strict non-compete clauses.
But there is a bigger legal issue looming for Musk if he really wants to transform Twitter into a social media broadcaster. Twitter could be subject to FCC fairness rules, which require that it gives voice to both political parties' views on controversial issues — especially if Carlson lands any right-wing 2024 presidential candidates as guests. Musk seems to be trying to get out ahead of this by saying that he is open to liberal content creators, too. On Wednesday, he invited the freshly fired CNN host Don Lemon to join Twitter’s ranks.
Carrying content like Carlson’s could also end up weakening Twitter’s claim to Section 230 protections, internet laws from the 1990s that shield social media platforms from legal liability for content posted on their sites. (Dominion, for example, could not sue Twitter for libel in the same way that it did Fox.)
Musk’s announcement that he is treating Carlson as a “content creator” rather than a news broadcaster may be a feint to avoid liability for Carlson’s content. YouTube, which this future version of Twitter may resemble, is not liable for users’ content. If Twitter was seen as a producer and a publisher of news, however, it might not be able to make the same argument.
What might all of this mean for 2024?
Carlson has a prominent media perch again, and that will matter for the US presidential race. The Fox v. Dominion case unearthed private communications of Carlson bad-mouthing former President Donald Trump, who remains the odds-on favorite to get the GOP nomination (despite, or because of, his outrageous performance on CNN this week.)
On his Fox News show, Carlson was careful not to challenge Trump. It’s unclear whether that was because of the network’s tight leash or because of other strategic calculations he made. But this much is certain: If Carlson on this new Twitter show voices sentiments similar to what he’s texted, we could be in for a showdown between the populist right’s most prominent politician and its most popular media figure.
Why Trump chose CNN for his Town Hall
Does former president Donald Trump’s CNN Town Hall have anything to do with Fox News? Rumored 2024 GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie thinks the answer is a resounding yes.
On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the former governor of New Jersey theorized that Trump is holding his first televised discussion with 2024 voters on CNN to give a ratings boost to Fox’s principal competitor and punish the network for settling the recent lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems.
In settling the lawsuit, Fox News recognized that “certain claims” about Dominion’s voting machines that it repeated during news broadcasts weren’t true, contradicting the lies Trump has been repeating about the 2020 election being rigged.
The town hall will also be a test for moderator Kaitlan Collins, who covered the Trump White House as CNN’s chief White House correspondent in 2021. Democrats worry about Trump repeating misinformation on air, Republicans wonder if it’s even possible he’ll be given a fair shake on CNN.
“There's no question that this is Donald Trump's response to Fox having settled the Dominion Voting Systems case,” Chris Christie tells Ian Bremmer, “In the end I hope that what Fox has learned from this is that authenticity matters and that people should be on the air saying what they really believe.”
Watch the full interview on the upcoming episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, airing on US public television nationwide. Check local listings.
- Biden and Trump set for battle of the ages in 2024 election ›
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- What We’re Watching: Fox settles, UN’s Afghan exit, US debt ceiling battle ›
- Dominion Voting v. Fox News: The stakes are higher than you think ›
- Christie: US should keep leading Ukraine aid - GZERO Media ›
- Republican identity crisis: Chris Christie vs. Donald Trump - GZERO Media ›
People pass by a promo of Tucker Carlson on the Fox Corp. building in New York.
What We’re Not Watching: Tucker’s ‘O, Canada’
Chances of an American invasion of Canada fell this week when Fox News dropped Tucker Carlson from its lineup, a move that appears to be part of the fallout from the network’s massive settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.
Tucker’s departure means that a host of far-right Canadians will not be getting the moment in the sun they expected from a special – that was set to air on May 1 – exploring whether the US should launch a military campaign to overthrow Canada’s “authoritarian” government.
In this space last week, we pondered the implications of that broadcast, since Carlson’s millions of viewers could be influenced to think bad and inane things about their northern neighbors. It turns out that we needn’t have worried.
Fox Senior Media Relations Manager Ali Coscia confirmed by email on April 26 that the show will not be aired: “Confirmed — this episode will not run on Fox Nation. There are no further new episodes of Tucker Carlson Originals running on the platform.”
This is bad news, no doubt, for Lauren Southern and the other marginal personalities from the Canadian far right, but it’s good news for the cross-border relationship. Now, millions of Fox viewers will never be told that Justin Trudeau is a dictator who should be overthrown by force.
As for the broader meaning of the Carlson exit, check out this thoughtful New Yorker article, which argues that it doesn’t matter that much. The network, not the talking head, is the real star. Ian Bremmer, meanwhile, believes Fox made the right move, but he also thinks Carlson will simply take his brand elsewhere and still find a way to have a huge impact in 2024.
Tucker Carlson out at Fox News
Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hey everybody. Ian Bremmer here, a Quick Take to kick off your week and well, you know what the hell? I'll respond to the Tucker Carlson news since it's pretty significant. He's out all of a sudden, a very sudden and very terse statement being made by Fox. They have agreed to part ways. Kind of statement that usually makes you think that there is more news that is going to be coming out relatively soon that they wanted to get ahead of. But let's leave that aside. This is the guy that was driving an extraordinary amount of revenue, most popular show on cable, and also now is driving a lot of losses because of the Dominion settlement, which Tucker Carlson played a significant role in being responsible for promoting a lot of fake news while also being caught in text messages saying that the election grievances and being stolen, "Stop the Steal" was all a lot of BS.
So what do we think about that? Well, I mean, first Fox going forward is likely to set some pretty clear limits so they don't get themselves vulnerable to these kinds of lawsuits going forward. They settled, but that settlement is expensive. It's about 20% of the cash on hand that Fox actually had, and nobody wants to be cutting those sorts of checks. And to the extent that Tucker is an relatively uncontrolled and uncontrollable actor on Fox, getting rid of him no matter how much advertising revenue and eyeballs he drives, as well as Dan Bongino, much smaller, but same sort of actor is a pretty sensible move for Fox to make. It's kind of funny because I remember when the Murdochs wanted to have Tucker in that position, and he was seen at the time as actually very intelligent, very credible, and a bomb thrower and a polemicist, but not about fake news.
Someone who actually was going to be great for Fox, for the Fox family. And of course, when Carlson started seeing just how much he could drive algorithmically by giving the base exactly what it wants and not mattering whether it was provable or not, and playing to some of the worst instincts of fear and anger that his population and the Trump population has, then he was willing to go with it 100%. And some of that has been deeply damaging. He's been the guy that's most clearly publicly aligned with Putin, for example, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine with Viktor Orbán, a clear authoritarian inside the EU, and also the idea that that Canada is increasingly becoming an authoritarian regime and needs support from the US. That's going to be a fun special that a lot of people will be forced to watch.
I will say that I never would go on Tucker Carlson. I refuse. In my view, it's not real information. I make a point when there's major international news on screen, I want to make sure that I appear on CNN, on MSNBC and on Fox. And that is not hard to do, even though very few people do it, if you stick to trying to help people understand what's happening in the world. But you can't do it on a show like Tucker. There's no problem doing it during the day at Fox. The morning show, the midday, afternoon. I mean, whether it's Bret Baier or Dana Perino or a whole bunch of other... I mean, I can think of 10 anchors that I've been on. They're all fine. They may be quite conservative. They may be pro-Trump, even some of them, though very few actually, certainly privately, but they're happy to have you talk about what you think.
Just as most of the vast majority of anchors I work with on CNN and MSNBC are, but Tucker is not. And in that regard, I'm glad he's gone, but I don't think it matters. I don't think it matters for two reasons. First, because his brand is going to go with him. He is a business. He will get that advertising revenue. He will continue to drive massive amounts of support, including through social media. In that regard he'll be one of the most effective in the United States, and I think he'll play a very significant role in 2024. In some ways, he may be more effective in doing that than he is at Fox. Certainly, I don't believe Trump gets elected if it isn't for Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. I don't think that Bolsonaro is elected without those mechanisms and many others populous on the right and on the left anti-establishment voices and forces that we see in Democratic elections around the world.
By the way, I also saw that Don Lemon was just ousted from CNN this morning, very different kind of ouster. I have appeared with Don Lemon a bunch on his show, and then more recently, I think a week or two ago on the morning show, but they clearly wanted to shake that up. It wasn't working internally in terms of bookings and rebookings and the orientation of the different anchors there being very different. And also the blowback he got when he was talking in an insensitive manner about age, which is something that you can get away with if you're Tucker, but you can't get away with if you're Don. And well, we'll see where he ends up next. But having said that, the funny thing is Chris Cuomo, who of course was canceled from CNN because of the inappropriateness of his links to his brother, the former governor who has done lots of bad things.
I actually think Chris Cuomo's a very strong newsman, and I enjoy going on his show and on his podcast. Think he asks tough questions across the political spectrum. And I'm glad he's back and I'm glad he's still there and doing it. I don't know how many people actually watch it, but I'll tell you that if he calls and I'm around, I'll certainly give him the time. So that's how I think about this stuff. And of course on my own GZERO show, which I hope a lot of you watch, I do my damnedest to reach out to everybody, whether it's Dem, Republican, or Independent in the US and there's increasingly a large number of those as well as around the world.
That's it for me. I'll talk to you all real soon.
Tucker Carlson wants to invade Canada
When Pierre Trudeau (Justin’s father) was prime minister, he famously said living next to the United States was like sleeping with an elephant: “No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
So Canadians should expect a restless night on May 1, because that’s when Fox News superstar Tucker Carlson releases his latest project: a special film called “O, Canada.” The program argues that the US should “liberate” Canada … with military force.
Carlson, known for sharing white nationalist conspiracy theories with 2.5 million Americans five nights a week, just dropped two trailers that portray Canada as an authoritarian hellhole where citizens are jailed for protesting against the government. They highlight interviews with a constellation of figures featured on Rebel News, a far-right Canadian outlet that depicted anti-lockdown protesters as victims of Liberal stormtroopers.
The scenes include two pastors who were locked up for violating COVID public health laws. Populist leader Maxime Bernier, who was arrested for attending a rally that violated pandemic gathering restrictions, and Rebel News broadcasters Alexandra Lavoie and David Menzies all claim to have been roughly treated by police.
But the star of the film appears to be Lauren Southern, a telegenic 27-year-old documentary filmmaker from Surrey, B.C., with a long track record as a white-nationalist provocateur. Southern is shown shooting in the wilderness, lamenting Canadian gun laws (we have bears in trees, she points out). In a sit-down interview at Fox’s California studio, she tells Carlson that the situation is “absolutely maddening.”
“We’ve just found out our elections were almost entirely rigged by the Chinese government,” she says, referring to the recent scandal over Beijing’s alleged election meddling. “Canadians are living in a state of absolute fear of our government, and we’re not even sure if our government is controlled in Canada or overseas.”
“Whether your democracy is real or not, of course, that’s a familiar feeling to Americans,” says Carlson.
The trailers feature unflattering images of Trudeau – including a Hitler-esque rendering of his face – and clips of American leaders announcing military strikes in Iraq and Libya. The implication? That the US should consider a shock and awe campaign in Ottawa.
The premise, of course, is laughable, and about as absurd as Fox’s attacks on Dominion Voting Systems, or Carlson’s 2022 special, which promoted testicle tanning. Canada’s lifesaving COVID restrictions were imposed by democratically elected governments and backed by a majority of voters.
The Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act to clear an anti-lockdown protest in Ottawa, but a public inquiry found that the government acted properly. The manager of the 2021 Conservative campaign has written that while the Chinese did interfere, the election outcome “was not influenced by any external meddling.”
Carlson is going to foist a farrago of lies and nonsense on his viewers, giving them a fundamentally wrong impression of their neighbor. But few Canadians think that gun ownership is necessary as a hedge against tyranny. And polling from Maru Public Opinion for GZERO Media shows that only a small minority of Canadians consider themselves to be oppressed by an authoritarian government.
“It's not representative of Canada,” says John Wright, executive vice president of Maru. “It's propaganda. It's falsehoods. To suggest that this is a country on the verge of revolution ... You're gonna get somewhere between 9 and 17% of the public, depending upon what avenue you want to go down, that feels that way.”
The special may be premised on falsehoods, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have an impact on the relationship between Canada and the US. Greg Elmer, director of the Infoscape Research Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University, points out that Fox viewers know little about Canadian politics and will believe what Carlson tells them, which could lead to political friction over trade.
“I do think, unfortunately, that we do need to take it seriously just because of the size of the platform,” Elmer says.
If Carlson convinces voters that Canada is an authoritarian dystopia, politicians may act on that impression. Wright points out that a small number of MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives can exercise disproportionate influence because GOP leadership needs every vote, as we saw in the many rounds to select a Speaker.
“It doesn't take much when you have a split House like this to have consequences if they decide that this is part of the rhetoric,” Wright adds.
Carlson’s inane special will also give an enormous boost to Rebel News personalities who are typically on the margins of Canadian public life. Research shows that American outlets, especially Fox, supercharged “Freedom convoy” content in 2022, helping turn a niche protest into a mass movement that paralyzed Ottawa and blocked border crossings.
Pandemic restrictions are gone, and the leadership of the movement is divided and dispirited, but Carlson is about to give them a huge jolt of energy.
And the rest of Canada? It will need to sleep with one eye open until this elephant leaves the room.
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But if the US did invade and take over Canada – which we think is preposterous – what would the new names be for the Montreal Canadiens and the Vancouver Canucks? Send us your greatest names here.
Abandoned footwear and other belongings lie on the ground after a stampede in Sanaa, Yemen.
Hard Numbers: Stampede in Yemen, Dominion’s incredible windfall, China’s nuclear ambitions, Russian influence ring busted in Florida, Japanese dream homes
78: At least 78 people were killed Thursday in a stampede at a school in Sana'a, Yemen's capital. Hundreds were reportedly crushed after Houthi rebels shot into the air in an attempt at crowd control, striking an electrical wire and causing mass panic. As the end of Ramadan nears, scores of people were gathering at the school to receive donations of about $9 each.
1,500: No matter what you think about the precedent set by Dominion’s $787.5 million settlement with Fox News, one thing’s for sure: Somebody got very rich here. And that somebody is Staple Street, a little-known private equity firm that paid a mere $38.3 million for a controlling stake in Dominion five years ago and just got blessed with a 1,500% return on their investment.
25: Russia recently sent Beijing 25 tons of highly enriched uranium to start up a special new Chinese reactor that will help Xi Jinping rapidly expand his nuclear arsenal. Experts say China’s nukes will soon be on par with those of Russia and the US, meaning that Beijing should be party to any new arms control treaties that replace the (currently defunct) US-Russia ones.
4: The US government has charged four members of a Black nationalist group in Florida with belonging to a Kremlin-run conspiracy to “sow discord” and “corrupt US elections.” The members of the African People’s Socialist Party allegedly failed to disclose payments from Russia for their work spreading pro-Kremlin messages.
11 million: If you want to buy a beautiful old house in Japan, you’re in luck. There are currently as many as 11 million empty homes scattered across the country, a result of Japan’s shrinking and aging population. Experts say the numbers of these so-called “akiya” homes will only rise in the coming years, so if you’re interested, grab yourself a copy of In Praise of Shadows, hop a flight to Tokyo, and seek out your dream home.