The real reason Rupert Murdoch just kneecapped Donald Trump
Fox News helped put Donald Trump in office to begin with, by shamelessly promoting his lies, and by harping on phony scandals about his opponent. But now Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch is telling close associates that he’s disgusted with how Trump is handling the pandemic, and that he expects a Joe Biden landslide win – and it’s all leaked out to the media.
To be clear, leaks like this don’t happen by accident. The entire point of someone like Murdoch having close associates is that they don’t go running to the media every time he expresses a private thought. The only reason you’re reading this story is that Murdoch wanted it leaked. So why’s he doing it?
It’s fairly simple: Rupert Murdoch cares far more about ratings and revenue than he does about Donald Trump’s fate. He expects Trump to lose, and he’s giving his Fox News viewers a heads up, so he can maintain relative credibility with them after Trump does lose. He’s even giving them a specific reason for why Trump is going to lose. That way, if he does lose, Fox viewers will understand that Murdoch warned them it was coming, and they’ll still see Fox as credible.
That’s not to say that Fox News is suddenly going to become pro-Biden if he wins. There’s no chance of that. We’ll still see nightly nonsense about Hunter Biden, or whatever phony Joe Biden scandal the far right might be making up by that time. Because again, this is about ratings. But it’s clear that Murdoch now sees Trump as dead weight, and he’s selfishly choosing his own business interests over trying to save Trump. Trump should have seen this coming; we certainly did.
