Dutton spent years perfecting his hard-man, free-speech warrior character – once noting that criticisms were like ‘water off a duck’s back’. But in an impressive display of his range, he was able to quickly pivot to a thin-skinned, hypersensitive litigant, when he was told someone wrote a five-word mean tweet about him. Utterly convincing.
News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch’s battle against small news outlet Crikey is set to continue in a brewing dispute over an almost $600,000 pool of supporter funds after the media scion dropped his defamation litigation.
It seems Lachlan and his father Rupert have significantly different views “in public” than they do “in private”. Rupert’s views and concerns were expressed very clearly in demanding Fox News “pivot” in order to save its ratings and share value from severely Bungie diving. In order to do that truth, facts, and their real beliefs needed to be abandoned in favour of what their audience wants to hear and not what it needed to. Lachlan well he simply abandoned showing his beliefs years ago when he proved to be a failure as an executive and investor years ago. He burnt millions with One Tel, Ch10 and is now aiming for strike 3.
At the March 9 Morgan Stanley 2023 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference, Fox Corp. CEO and Executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch downplayed the seriousness of Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News, saying that “the noise about the lawsuit is not about the law and is not about journalism, and more about politics and that is reflective of the polarized society we live in.”
One of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch’s defences from any personal liability in the court cases is that in their management roles, they do not tell journalists what to say.
But in the below video, Lachlan Murdoch says that he “works closely with the managers of those newsrooms and it’s important they get the positioning and the messaging right”. Those “managers” would be the editors who work directly with the journalists overseeing what the journalists write. So Lachlan by his own admission is only one step away from directly telling the journalists what to write.
In any case, the Murdochs have inflicted so much racism, sexism, virulent lies, and damage in the USA. This is by no means the case for the USA only. It similarly applies to the UK and Australia.
Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch, who are both well-known international criminals who have committed crimes such as tax evasion and phone bugging, have been forced to give evidence under oath in the US.
Australia’s own MERITOCRACY is a fable. “If they can do it you can too in the land down under” is the myth preached just as you to can win the lottery and some do while the system guarantees you won’t because it’s designed that way. Inheritance ensures an increase in generational poverty and a flow up and an imaginary promise of a better trickle-down in the next decade. Remember Hawke’s promise that no child will be born in poverty well it worked for James and Lachlan
Billionaire media scions Lachlan Murdoch and James Packer have a close friendship which has endured the ups and downs of mega-deals including Australia’s ‘Super League’ war, the collapse of One.Tel, the rise of Realestate.com.au and failure of Channel Ten – some of the best and worst moments of Lachlan’s career. This edited extract from Paddy Manning’s new biography of Lachlan Murdoch sheds new light on their tumultuous business history.
Lachlan Murdoch’s own barrister Sue Chrysanthou has thrown him and his company News Corp under a bus, not once but twice, in his defamation claim against news website Crikey.
One Tel, Ch 10, Crickey. Lachlan certainly hasn’t shown dad he deserves his big boy pants has he? The Advocate of Speech Freedom wants to prove money talks and make Crikey walk but they’re not going away. So now he wants to change the rules of the challenge to punish and rid himself of them by sending them broke.But the umpire said “No Way”. Now dad wants to change the company structure will he put little Lachie in charge?
It is difficult to reconcile Murdoch’s submission when NewsCorp Australia will, in all likelihood in future defamation cases, rely on and even hope to expand the application of the very defence that its heir-apparent has just labelled as worthless. If Murdoch’s argument succeeds at trial, he may win this battle against Crikey, but his stable could lose many major wars in the future.
Gladiator of “Free Speech” is suing Crikey for a single sentence why? Because he can.
Lachlan Murdoch helped turn Fox News into a bastion of white supremacist talking points, election subversion, and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories while shredding its “news side” operation. Now he may be rewarded with even more power.
I doubt Lachlan Murdoch was going to sue Crikey, but I suspect the gamechanger was a full-page ad that Crikey ran in The New York Times calling on Lachlan to back up his threats to sue by filing and serving his defamation claim.CNN reported:
Lachlan Murdoch’s business record in Australia hasn’t been all that great. One Tel springs to mind “At the time, Mr Packer and Mr Murdoch,lost $1 billion invested by family vehicles PBL and News Corp, They said they’d had been misled about One.Tel’s financial position.“
Why does Lachlan Murdoch, a Philosophy major, believe his reputation will be improved by this legal action against Crikey?
Millions of dollars in legal costs are expected to be spent as News Corp co-chairman and Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch, eldest son of media baron Rupert, sues a comparative minnow in Australia, Crikey, for defamation over a June 29 article.
OMG Lachlan Murdoch is offended by Australia’s Crikey! So much so he’s threatening to sue. Yet, he employs Tucker Carlson et al and allows those hucksters to bullshit the American nation. It’s great to see him being sued by those voting machine corporations for the lies he and News Corp not just reported but actively supported all the way to the violence on Jan 6th in claiming they helped steal the election in 2020 from Donald Trump.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed on Monday that the Biden administration is hiring “87,000 armed IRS agents to make sure you obey,” a wildly inflammatory and false claim that his network’s White House correspondent debunked a few days earlier.
Lachlan Murdoch revealed that he doesn’t have a f***ing clue about what goes on at the network he heads, even as he acknowledged what Fox has long pretended otherwise – that Fox is a political operation.
“The main beneficiary of the Trump administration from a ratings point of view was MSNBC… and that’s because they were the loyal opposition,” Murdoch said of the rival cable network. “That’s what our job is now with the Biden administration, and you’ll see our ratings really improve from here.” That’s a load of hogwash. In February – you know, while Biden was president – MSNBC won the total day ratings. And while Fox had the most prime time viewers, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show beat both Tucker Carlson Tonight and Hannity.
olddogthoughts 