Did Rupert Murdoch Direct Megyn Kelly To Confront Trump During The Debate?

A paragraph in Gabriel Sherman’s latest article makes a startling claim: that it was Rupert Murdoch who told Megyn Kelly to go after Donald Trump about his sexism in their now-infamous encounter during the presidential debate last summer.

From Sherman’s May 17 article in New York Magazine:

According to a half dozen sources familiar with Murdoch’s thinking, the media mogul has signaled he plans to fully back Trump in the general election against Hillary Clinton. Murdoch’s embrace of Trump is a sharp reversal from the hostile view he held over much of the past year. In fact, according to one high-level Fox source, it was Murdoch himself who directed Kelly to hammer Trump during the debut GOP debate, in Cleveland, that sparked the feud in the first place. “Rupert told her to do that,” the source said.

If it was indeed Murdoch behind the debate confrontation, that could explain why Roger Ailes distanced himself from it and was uncharacteristically timid in his responses.

Caricature of Megyn Kelly byDonkeyHotey, via Creative Commons license.

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commented 2016-05-20 03:05:14 -0400 · Flag

The business case for Fox News has been from the beginning, and remains, being the right-wing counter to “mainstream liberal media.” If the appetite for that dwindles, Fox will dwindle. They have no other option. But if that ever happens, it will be long after Murdoch and Ailes move on to their richly deserved rewards in the afterlife.

As for Mudoch and Kelly— the vast majority of the on-air personalities on Fox were Trump fans before that debate, during the big controversy, and afterwards. Nothing has changed since June.

The Megyn stunt at the debate was fantastic for her ratings and for her career ambitions. It was the mother of all “Megyn moments.” It could just as well have been Ailes’s idea as Murdoch’s because it had the wonderfully beneficial effect he would wish. He kept silent because he didn’t want to interfere with it.

They could easily risk pissing off some viewers for a while because where the hell else are they going to go for their TV? And in the meantime, ratings went up because people tuned in to see how the “fight” was working out.

There’s WAY too much tea leaf reading, or chicken entrails reading, about this, IMO. Fox is pro-Trump now and always has been pro-Trump because it’s what the rank-and-file right-wing viewers want. The end.

commented 2016-05-19 10:35:43 -0400 · Flag

I disagree with the sentiment FOX News is all about the ratings. All facts indicate propaganda comes first. No doubt the popularity of FOX is tied to their right-wing propaganda driven by the conservative paranoia all the media is liberals out to get them. Does anyone think Rupert and Roger Ailes would promote liberalism if they thought ratings would boost?

That said, there is one interesting phenomena going on. FOX News which created the political Donald has lost control of the conservative movement. The useful idiots they exploited by creating angst and paranoia have seized control of the mindshare from establishment types like Rupert and Roger.

So all the schisms Newshounds has reported internal to FOX are coming together as Trump cheerleaders. Rupert has met with Trump and both sides are kissy face for the moment and unified to deliver the White House to the Republicans.

commented 2016-05-19 09:32:52 -0400 · Flag

It’s just theater — the country be damned, Fox doesn’t care about the government, all they want to do is sell automobiles and Gold Bond powder. Market share, making money, it’s all fabricated, and, as such, this is why it shouldn’t be about politics because politics is serious business and people get hurt when fascist governments take charge.