Notes for Ophelias Media Homework

In April 2017 the New York Times placed Rupert Murdoch, the Executive
Chairman of News Corp, at the top of their list of Donald Trumps key advisors
outside of the White House.

News Corp is one of the largest and most powerful media companies in the
world. It owns leading newspapers in the UK (including The Sun, The Times and
The Sunday Times), the US and Australia. It also owns or part owns TV
distribution companies such as the FOX News Company, which has massive
viewing figures in the States and can be seen around the world on subscription.

Donald Trump has famously declared war on the media, seeing the majority of
them as the enemy, particularly institutions such as the BBC and the New York
Times, whom he sees as having a liberal agenda that is dead set against him.
Having the head of News Corp on his side was, therefore, an obvious advantage to
him throughout his election campaign: positive stories in their print, digital and
broadcast outlets could only do him favours.

And so, how did this News Corp involvement work during the election campaign?
Some examples are that during the campaign Donald Trump gave regular
interviews to Sean Hannity of FOX News, more than any other television
journalist in the world. This was because he did not give Trump as hard a time as
other interviewers did he asked the difficult questions on Trumps views on
immigration reform, defense strategy and welfare benefits but allowed the future
president to rant away without challenging him on the sources of his information
or the facts.

Likewise, in the United Kingdom, Donald Trump was given a much easier ride in
the run-up to the election by The Times and The Sun than he was in newspapers
such as The Guardian and even The Daily Telegraph that challenged the truth of
some of his crazier claims, policies and notorious Tweets. It was really interesting
that after Trump had been elected, Rupert Murdoch actually organised his first
newspaper interview with a British journalist the former Tory minister Michael
Gove, who writes for The Times. It is not clear if Murdoch sat through the whole
interview or just introduced Trump, but the fact is that this not only ensured
News Corp got the scoop but also shows the strong link between the President of
the United States and this media organization.

There is an interesting article on the relationship between Trump and Murdoch

in The Guardian, with the headline Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch: inside
the billionaire bromance. https://www.theguardian.com/us-
news/2017/jun/16/donald-trump-rupert-murdoch-friendship-fox-news

George W Bush was the 43rd President of the United States and served between
2001 to 2009. He has been quoted in the past for saying that he is not a fan of TV
news and only reads the sports section in newspapers. He gave fewer press
conferences than either Bill Clinton or his father George HW Bush.
FOX News leans to the far right of opinion and in both of George W Bushs
election campaigns it made no secret of the fact that it was supporting him. There
was a scandal when FOX News reporter John Ellis announced the election vote
from Florida in 2004 and then went on to declare Bush re-elected as President.
The accurate voting figures had not been officially given out and it turned out
that John Ellis is George W Bushs first cousin! See
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/nov/19/uselections2000.usa2

FOX News were vociferous supporters of US president George W Bushs war on

terrorism, invasion of Iraq and his re-election campaign according to an article
on page 292 in the handbook of New Media: Student Edition. See
https://books.google.co.uk/books?
id=NZ3ktyGA0rwC&pg=PA292&lpg=PA292&dq=news+corp+coverage+of+georg
e+w+bush+election+campaign&source=bl&ots=yW54kfMKdP&sig=G8pzjAJ1y48
nS3tMfI_lTyhczLo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwitiKuzga3WAhWrCsAKHUQDAKE
Q6AEIVDAG#v=onepage&q=news%20corp%20coverage%20of%20george
%20w%20bush%20election%20campaign&f=false
And in an essay called Why Rupert Murdoch Cant Be Stopped in the November
2014 of the Australian political magazine called The Monthly the link between
News Corps promotion of George W Bush is made very clear: On Fox News, the
anxiety of its white and ageing audience at the collapse of the values and
prejudices they had grown up with, and their hatred for the supposed
condescension of the liberal elites, were inflamed on a daily basis. Gradually, Fox
News became the most popular American cable news channel. In turn, it became
critical to the fortunes of the Republican Party. Fox News was a vital supporter of
George W Bushs presidency and the most important cheerleader for the invasion
of Iraq. See
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/november/1383224400/robert-
manne/why-rupert-murdoch-can-t-be-stopped