An article refers to Trump as a “proven political loser”. This is a long way from the unspeakable FOX level of adoration usually expected. The article goes into some depth.
The article points out that he didn’t win the popular vote in both 2016 and 2020 elections. It even mentions that Trump led the Republicans to a series of political defeats. It refers to “Trump’s lies about last year’s election”. The article was placed not-very-inconspicuously in the North American US politics section. Hard to miss.
…So what’s changed? Is Murdoch trying to win back the long-lost credibility of a real news source? That credibility was totally destroyed by the slavish adherence to Trump-speak, but it was already more than shaky.
The credibility is to put it mildly a bit uncertain. There are many instances dating back long before Trump. In 2001, the loathsome Bill O’Reilly called a person whose family member had died in 911 “unpatriotic”… a few days after that person died.
FOX and Friends has never been much more than a publicist for Republican and conspiracy theorist babble. The unspeakable 1970s-wardrobed Tucker Carlson made endless servile, grovelling statements in favor of Trump and anything Trump-related. This is a news source? How?
Why change now, when things are obviously going so well for the GOP and Trump? You can still get the latest Trump tantrums from Murdoch’s News International, surely?
My bottomless opinion of Trump could never be expressed by all the curses in human history. To me he’s the antithesis of America – A brat who never made it on his own. A serial failure in business, a liar, and a vulgar nonentity at best.
…Which is why I wonder how Rupert Murdoch, of all people, love him or hate him, would have anything to do with Trump or any of the other shabby, scabby GOP nobodies. Murdoch took the equivalent of a one-and-a-half horse town newspaper and turned it into News International. He went through truly murderous flak in the process.
Murdoch is a real businessman who does real business. He’s had many ups and downs, but that’s his track record. He’s effectively the exact opposite of Trump in that respect. He steamrolled US news media with takeovers in a super-hostile environment. In doing real business, Trump wouldn’t qualify as a half-eaten Kinder Surprise compared to Murdoch, and that’s an understatement.
However – Murdoch also identified a lack of conservative media presence in the US. That’s generally considered to be the reason for the long-term global News International editorial strategy. That strategy, like it or not, (and I don’t), has worked. News International is positioned across the entire conservative spectrum like Google.
Which is why this apparent emerging disfavour needs to be looked at in that light. Could it be that the Great Stable Genius is no longer the golden calf of the real power brokers? Imagine searching Google and not finding Trump? That’d be the equivalent. Trump may well be turning in to non-news at this level.
Trump was tolerated despite his appalling manners, insufferable vulgarity and other hideous characteristics. He delivered the Holy Tax Cuts. Then he went off the rails, and nobody could be bothered putting him back on them.
I’d say that the expiry date has been reached. It’ll be interesting to see how News manages Trump in future. I must say, though – Trump, in whatever form, is definitely a short-term prospect politically. Between his financial catastrophes and his political ego, he’s history. Murdoch isn’t famous for backing losers.
