The British are coming...
A strong argument can be made that America started heading downhill with one immigration decision — granting Australian news mogul Rupert Murdoch citizenship that enabled him to create a media empire.
The tabloidization of newspapers and the creation of the Fox Propaganda, er, News Channel are the most obvious examples.
But Rupert: The Next Generation is coming into focus. And it’s not a pretty picture.
Just this week, the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, edited by Murdoch veteran Emma Tucker, published a story declaring “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping.” The story cites “more than 45 people” as sources, but quoted only one extensively by name: ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
That was wrapped around some startling changes — and reporting about — the Washington Post, where former Murdoch lieutenant Will Lewis brought in a British editor with no U.S. experience to run the operation after the election. Former WSJ editor Matt Murray, an American, will oversee the newsroom until then.
That change came when Post executive editor Sally Buzbee abruptly left after being offered a demotion in a newsroom shakeup. And more ominously, after a clash with Lewis over running a story related to the British phone hacking scandal that took place while Lewis was a high-ranking member of the Murdoch team.
And now we learn, through NPR’s David Folkenflik, the depth of Lewis’ Murdochian ethics: he offered the reporter an exclusive interview if he killed that story.
Meanwhile, Fox is occupying its traditional place as chief outlet for convicted felon Donald Trump and his minions calling for “retribution.” Thus spake Stephen Miller:
“Is every House committee controlled by Republicans using its subpoena power in every way it needs to right now? Is every Republican D.A. starting every investigation they need to right now? Every facet of Republican Party politics and power has to be used right now to go toe-to-toe with Marxism and beat these Communists.”
Let’s start with the Journal, which maintained its reputation for solid journalism under Murray, despite the right-wing rantings of its editorial board. And it has stood firmly behind its imprisoned Moscow reporter Evan Gershkovich.
But the “Biden is slipping” story has been blasted as a “hit piece” across the political spectrum. Aside from the over-reliance on anonymous sources it offers up a comment from McCarthy that stood in direct contrast to one he offered when he wasn’t being quoted:
Privately, Mr. McCarthy has told allies that he has found Mr. Biden to be mentally sharp in meetings.
Former Trump and Pence aide Olivia Troye, said the quiet part out loud:
Hope the Wall Street Journal feels free to reach out to any one of us who worked in the Trump Admin. Happy to discuss Trump’s mental acuity & fitness for office. We can start with the closed doors discussions on milkshakes during intel briefings, windmills causing cancer, what bleach does & doesn’t do & go from there…
Not to mention standing in front of reporters and TV cameras who repeat his insistence that he is being gagged, although that court order only applied to the witnesses and jurors in the trial where he was unanimously convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to coverup a payoff to a porn star in an effort to interfere with the 2016 election.
As for Lewis, every publisher has the right to have his own team in place. And with the Post losing money after the “Trump Bump” turnaround plans are mandatory.
But there are certainly better ways than alienating the award-winning staff, who will now be even more skeptical of a ham-handed publisher who remains named in a lawsuit where he stands accused of helping:
“…to carry out a plan to delete millions of emails shortly after plaintiffs say police told the paper they would need its ‘electronic document archive’ for an investigation into whether phone hacking was widespread at the publication. The plaintiffs allege that the decision probably erased evidence of wrongdoing — and that Lewis, along with another company official, later misled authorities in justifying the move.”
The Post and the Journal, along with the New York Times, have long stood atop an American journalism hierarchy that in the words of the Times’ “business announcement” would:
“give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interests involved.”
What hath Rupert wrought is a question we need to seriously consider.