A massive report in Vanity Fair,
by Gabriel Sherman details how Rupert Murdoch's massive media empire has
either imploded on itself already or will implode on itself very soon.
As the 92 year old billionaire now, stares down the consequences of his own actions.
Now from shady business deals with Trump to Murdoch's insane hypocrisy on COVID.
And even an email divorce,
there is an email divorce involved strap in for one hell of a story.
So before we get to all the details, we will first point out that the vast
majority of Sherman's reporting, is cited to anonymous sources.
Look, there are anonymous sources in news reports all the time doesn't
necessarily mean that this is made up.
I don't think this is made up, but I just wanted to mention that.
So consider some of this stuff.
Like for instance, well, there are too many angles to get into.
It's a very lengthy report, there are different angles to it.
We're gonna cover what we found the most interesting.
According to Sherman Murdoch, for instance, pushed Trump and
his administration to act in lockstep with Murdoch's own policy interests.
>> What. >> What a shocker.
>> That doesn't spread through other industries.
>> Is there gambling in this establishment?
>> Game changer.
>> Yeah, no, I mean, of course,
there's that relationship you can see it play out in real time.
But let's give you the details as reported by Sherman.
One source with direct knowledge of their conversations told me Murdoch
lobbied Trump to punish Facebook and Google for
siphoning his newspapers advertising revenue.
In 2019, Trump's Justice Department,
launched an antitrust investigation of Google.
In 2021,
Google settled and struck a lucrative content sharing deal with Murdoch.
There's more to this part of the story.
In fact, Sherman writes that the source also said Murdoch pushed Trump to open
up land for fracking, to boost the value of Murdoch's fossil fuel investments.
The Trump administration released nearly 13 million acres of
federally controlled land to fracking companies.
I remember when Trump did that,
we didn't know the Murdoch component to it at the time.
But I also remember how upset some Republican voters were about that because
turns out Republican voters also like to enjoy public lands.
So they're like, what are we doing here?
Why are we opening up these lands for private interest to do fracking or
whatever?
But anyway, I know how passionately you feel about these issues having to do with
fracking, drilling for oil and its impact on climate change.
Thoughts on this, John.
>> I think that as usual, it's very easy for
you as a member of the media to attack Trump.
But what I want our viewers to remember is that they're coming for you.
But Trump is in the way,
that's what I get out of this is that, he was in the position.
He was as a president to advance the interests of and
protect the poorest conservatives in the country.
All of whom, I presume will have reports coming in.
Vanity Fair had constant phone calls with Trump and
were able to just say what all legislation should be going forward.
Not a single conservative is going to read that.
Obviously, I don't think that they read Vanity Fair as with everything else.
The right wing has poisoned Vanity Fair and sites like it and all that.
But this is what he's there to do.
He's not talking to the people like chanting
on the side of the road outside of Mar a Lago.
Those are not the ones who are determining his agenda.
He'll occasionally throw them red meat or at least something they have been trained
to believe is me- >> Exactly.
>> Gets them excited and everything.
But when it comes to, it's not even necessarily all wrong.
I think that the opening up the extra territory for
fracking is totally needless.
I don't think I have a strong position on whether Facebook or
Google deserve an antitrust investigation or not.
They're massive companies >> Right.
>> They definitely deserve to be reined in.
But if they're reigned in, it shouldn't be only when and
in the particular style of the interests of another major media mogul.
>> Yeah, it shouldn't be on behalf of a billionaire media mogul
like Rupert Murdoch.
And honestly, as I read the details about the favors that Trump did for Murdoch.
I began to understand a little better, the rage that Trump felt on election night,
when Fox was willing to be the first to call Arizona for Biden, right?
>> Yeah. >> Because in his mind, it's quid pro quo,
not crow, quid pro quo- >> It probably applies to crows too.
>> [LAUGH] Maybe, maybe.
But there's a little bit more in terms of political favors for Murdoch.
As Sherman also writes, Murdoch, who sources say has become more pro life in
recent years, encouraged Trump to appoint judges who would overturn Roe V Wade.
Rupert wanted Trump's Supreme Court justices in, so
they could make abortion illegal.
A source who spoke to Murdoch said that,
and I don't think that was just about Murdoch to be fair.
There were evangelical voters who had supported Trump.
I mean, he was killing multiple birds with one stone.
I think that phrase is now considered inappropriate apologies.
But nonetheless, there were a lot of different people he was seeking
to placate with the appointment of these right wing anti choice judges.
>> Yeah, 100% look, we can't be particularly surprised by this.
I'm glad that it's being reported on.
It does definitely seem, I don't, it's probably needless to bring this up again.
But, we've pointed out that what he's being investigated for right now.
He's reigned for when it comes to hush money payments.
I think he definitely did that stuff, it should definitely be investigated.
But are you telling me that's worse than him opening up millions of acres
of federal land because a rich a hole told him to,
so that he could personally profit.
It's so weird how our politics is formulated.
You hope that the politicians will do a weird needless side thing that's against
the law because that's the only way you can get them all the stuff that they do.
That's horrible in terms of policy, in terms of foreign policy,
literally getting people killed.
All of that's totally cool.
You've no chance of anything happening there.
I hope he made a phone call to Georgia, that's the only way we can get him.
Republicans like suppressing the vote in unprecedented ways,
year after year after year.
That's totally legal, that's totally cool.
I hope that he personally calls the Secretary of State.
It's just weird to get put in that position.
These conversations should be illegal.
Setting policy in this way should be illegal.
>> I mean, I totally agree with you on that.
I mean, there are so many conflicts of interest that transparent,
like overt conflicts of interest in Congress, in our system of government, and
there's never any consequences for it, right?
And I think this is a good example of it.
I don't know if this reporting changes a damn thing in the minds of any Trump
supporter.
But it's what we suspected was happening behind the scenes.
And now we have confirmation of that.
What I will take a little bit of pleasure in is how much Rupert Murdoch hated
the fact that he needed to rely on Trump coverage to keep his ratings up.
So Sherman writes, it's ironic that Murdoch's fortunes would
become entwined with Trump's because Murdoch found Trump appalling,
which by the way, Rupert Murdoch is garbage, right?
So I just love how he's throwing stones while he's in a glass house.
But Rupert knew he was an idiot.
A person close to Murdoch said,
Murdoch was a long time champion of immigration reform.
And free trade and loathed Trump's native nativism and know nothingism.
>> Yeah, yeah.
Well, that was the amazing thing about the beginning of the Trump era was that for
the first time Fox News became anti immigrant.
>> [LAUGH] >> That was the default position of every
one of their hosts going back since the beginning.
I mean, it's gotten maybe worse, but Lou Dobbs has been trash on that topic.
Years and years and years and years- >> 100%
>> Glenn Beck-
>> Tucker Carlson on immigration,
even >> Yeah
>> Prior to the Trump administration was
abhorrent, disgusting, hateful, yeah.
>> Yeah. I guess the idea ,if that reveals
anything, the idea is, in the same way that Tucker Carlson
individually might be lying to his viewers.
The network from the point of view of Rupert Murdoch apparently.
If he believes that what Fox News does will lead to his actual policy
preferences.
Then Fox as an entity, is lying to its viewers,
by demonizing immigrants caravans all that.
But then assuming that, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But once the Republicans take over, they're still gonna do some immigration
reform because it's gonna advance certain business interests.
I think it probably reveals that more than anything else.
>> Now, this part I thought was fascinating to say the least.
So the Dominion lawsuit is where I want to focus most of the attention because,
the Fox News puts on a brave face publicly.
But behind the scenes, it seems like there's quite a bit of panic taking place,
including with Rupert Murdoch.
So the Dominion lawsuit filings have revealed that things
are not going quite as Murdoch had planned.
So after the 2020 election, Murdoch told Laughlin and
Suzanne Scott and Laughlin is his son, right?
Yeah, Lachlan Murdoch and Suzanne Scott, that Fox host should say,
Biden won and move on.
According to a source who spoke to Murdoch at one point,
Murdoch even lobbied Trump to concede.
Rupert called Trump before Biden's inauguration to tell him to accept defeat
graciously.
And it's so funny and that he had left a good legacy and
that his stolen election stuff would drag everyone down, the sources said.
>> Some of that's true.
Now, Trump refused, that's also true.
Trump threatened to start his own channel and
put Fox out of business, the source said.
Again, the thing that's most revealing to me or
enlightening to me about this report is,
why Trump was experiencing this red hot rage against Fox.
We didn't know about this phone call.
Can you imagine being the person who hits up Trump to be like,
yo bro, you need, just concede.
It's time to concede >> Yeah.
>> After your network happened to be the first to call Arizona for Biden.
>> Yeah, yeah, let's also acknowledge that I get that it's been clear from the very
beginning that Trump will never get over the fact that they called Arizona.
But could we also be clear that if they hadn't ever,
everything would have gone the same way.
Other people would have called it first, then Fox would have had to have called it
because I know this is inconvenient to acknowledge Biden won the state.
And even if Biden hadn't won the state, he still would have won the election,
so what's the difference?
Finally, Murdoch was horrified as he and his then wife Jerry Hall,
watch the January 6th Capitol riot unfold from home.
Murdoch told Hall that Trump was trying to kill Mike Pence because he was
passing the presidency to Biden said a source who spoke with Murdoch that day.
Rupert kept calling the White House Trump, Jared, Sean Hannity,
Paul Ryan Mitch Mcconnell trying to get Trump to stop it, the source said.
>> Paul Ryan wasn't able to stop it, that's weird.
But don't call Paul Ryan, call me, I've so much influence.
>> I know seriously [LAUGH].
No, but you know what's amazing.
So you have Rupert Murdoch trying to do everything and
anything possible to get Trump to stop, just stop, concede.
Do something about the writers in the Capitol but
on air, what did we see on air at Fox?
>> Yeah.
So why don't you get control over your network, bro?
What's going on?
You have Tucker Carlson repeating lies about how, no, no, no,
they weren't Trump supporters, it was Antifa.
And then later saying that they're, no, no, they were just peaceful tourists.
And changing just constant disinformation that aids and
abets Donald Trump's bad behavior.
So instead of calling Trump because you know he's not going to listen to a damn
word that you have to say.
Why don't you actually have a little bit of accountability within your network,
which is just spouting constant lies about the outcome of the election and
about the January 6th, right?
>> To answer that question, why call him instead of doing that?
I think for the same reason that virtually every Republican has made the decisions
they have since mid to late 2015, utter cowardice.
Rupert Murdoch wanted the problem to go away.
He didn't wanna have to be the one to solve the problem.
No Republican wants to actually publicly disagree with Trump.
They just hope that some third party or act of God will come in and fix things, so
if they could keep telling the big lie.
But then behind the scenes, get Trump to back off,
then they get the outcome they actually want.
And don't risk losing their viewership along the way.
Rupert Murdoch might have slightly more principles than Laura Ingram or
Tucker Carlson.
At least theoretically, he didn't really push for any of this stuff.
But he's not actually going to risk any of his massive wealth by putting on the line
by actually taking a stand when it comes to what the network is saying.
>> In our members only bonus episode.
I want to get into Murdoch's divorce related stuff that Sherman reported on.
It's juicy, it's a little bit salacious TYT.com/join to become a member.
TYT.com//join to become a member, John and I will talk about it for
our members later.
>> I hope it is [CROSSTALK] it's about Rupert Murdoch [LAUGH]
>> I mean, don't worry,
you're gonna wanna know, it's fascinating.