Fox News’ Vulnerability No One Is Looking At

Share of command is never a good idea – YouTube

As the start of the Dominion case approached and the judge ruled Rupert Murdoch would indeed have to testify if called we learned something important that I believe is being overlooked.  Rupert has been much more involved in day-to-day management of Fox than had been believed.

Why does this matter?  I wish I could have found a slightly longer version of the scene in the video clip but the bottom line is that when engaged in a conflict/operation one, and only one person should be in charge.  History is replete with examples of meddling “superiors” who overrode the decisions made by those they’d delegated command authority to.  Crises have not only not been met but made worse (think the Covid “response” while Trump was still President), Businesses have failed and battles, even entire wars have been lost.

Make no mistake – Fox has been embattled for far longer than the Dominion case (with Smartmatic waiting in the wings, and more recently Abby Grossberg filing suit) and while they’ve always managed to come through ok in the end it’s my contention they might well be rather vulnerable these days.  So, we need to take a step away from current events and look at some history.

Let’s start by being clear on a key point.  Money. The bottom line.  That has always mattered at Fox more than anything.  Remember Glenn Beck?  It’s ironic he popped up on Carlson just before Carlson himself got shoved aside, but there was a time when Beck was a huge star.  His conspiracy theory stuff brought in tons of viewers and even more money.  Until (shockingly) Beck’s antics and “theories” got so “out there” that he started losing all those viewers.  And revenue.  Crazy as it seems now, it turns out there is (or at least was) a limit on the crazy that Fox viewers were willing to put up with.  So Beck’s show got the axe.  There was speculation both then and since about whether Beck quit on his own or got fired.  Fox News boss Roger Ailes (we’ll get to him) famously said he was fine with either version being talked about!  But what matters is that Beck was costing Fox money.  Too much revenue was being lost so he was tossed overboard.

Given what would follow that seems almost quaint.  Quite a few high level Fox people have been fired/forced out since then including the architect of Fox News Roger Ailes and it’s then signature star Bill O’Reilly. (Gretchen Carlson got axed for refusing to screw Ailes and the former Miss America’s not letting go of the matter led to plenty of other stuff at/about Fox coming out)  Let’s just stipulate it’s been a tumultuous seven or eight years for Fox.  One big PR problem and a series of costly financial payouts.  Nothing like Dominion of course but still.  Also, Rupert Murdoch who lest we forget is now into his 90s.  Now, it’s true of many if not most egotistic rich and powerful people that no amount of money or power can satisfy them, that they’re addicted to both there does come a point in life where they’d like to kick back at least some and enjoy the trappings of that money and power.

Rupert Murdoch, he of so much ill-gotten money and power was hitting his mid 80s when Donald Trump Trump mouth-sharted, slimed and squeezed his fat a$$ through the eye of the electoral college needle and into our White House.  And if the incestuous relationship between the Bush 43 administration was appalling, with Trump Fox would literally have it’s own people both in the WH and giving Trump daily advice via the phone.  (Trump:  “Hannity!  Will someone PLEASE call Hannity?”)  Murdoch one feels would have been safe in assuming he personally, Fox/News Corps would both be getting another big, fat tax cut but in the case of the latter still more of the deregulation he coveted. (Not that other news organizations didn’t also want those things mind you)

So in 2016 and already hitting his mid-80s and Trump getting elected Murdoch was in a good position to cut back and enjoy the trappings of his money and power in the years he had left which weren’t going to be all that many.  A new trophy wife every other year or maybe even every year.  Long vacations.  Whatever else he wanted.  He’d had plenty of kids but by then two had emerged as the ones who would run the family business.  Lachlan and James.  And to most outward appearances it seemed he’d turned over the reins, at least of day-to-day control of Fox and News Corps.  Except there was trouble brewing under the surface if one paid close enough attention.

First James, who many thought would wind up being the heir apparent.  The future king of all Murdoch had created.  Except James took a cold, hard look at things and decided he wasn’t down with his father’s or Fox’s political views and news coverage/commentary.  He was okay for a bit running the Disney stuff but when Rupert decided to downsize it was straight Fox/News Corps stuff or nothing and Rupert’s acquiring the Wall Street Journal and interfering with it’s editorial content was the last straw.  He walked away from it all.  He has also voiced criticism of Fox/News Corps and even support for some Democrats and Democratic policies!  In retrospect that’s a clue that whatever was being presented publicly Rupert Murdoch was still going to be a major force in the day-to-day operations of Fox an he (James) had zero chance of making any changes, much less anything close to what he would have wanted to do.

That still left Lachlan who was aligned with his father’s politics and “values” BUT Lachlan was pissed about Rupert’s downsizing of the empire.  However, like many a son in his position he thought “the old man won’t live forever” so he stayed on.  However it seems Lachlan has always been more about the bottom line and not just the current one but how things will be next year, five years from now, ten years from now and so on.  And the rumors were that Lachlan wanted to make changes at Fox.  Management.  “Talent” even, or at least with the latter having them tone things down some.  Not a lot, but be mindful of saying/doing things that might blow up in the future.

Rupert however resisted.  I believe accounts that he wanted to distance himself and Fox from Trump but he just couldn’t abide the short-term costs.  He hoped for some type of magic that would allow ratings and revenue to not only stay strong but grow and that regardless of more scandals (which is what Lachlan was fed up with) he didn’t want to rock the boat.  And, with some of the folks still at Fox he had dare I say some sense of loyalty to have their backs.

So, there’s some evidence that Rupert wanted to muddle along and pay out money in settlements when he had to as a cost of doing business.  All while behind the scenes Lachlan felt some changes were needed.  For the future’s sake.  Some short-term turmoil and perhaps even pain would lead to a long, long term of an ever more solid and profitable Fox and News Corps.  Two men with different opinions.

Again, for some years on the surface it seemed as if Rupert had indeed stepped back to a great degree.  No one kidded themselves into thinking he couldn’t stick his mitts in on a given matter anytime he wanted to any more than anyone believed Beavis and Butthead were making the decisions at the Trump Org.  But, Rupert Murdoch was said and even appeared to be staying fairly much out of things.

Except we’ve recently learned he wasn’t.  His involvement was much more frequent and significant than people, including I suspect all but senior folks at Fox knew was the case.  Fox’s lawyers tried to hide this and the judge in the Dominion case was more than a little miffed when he found out.

So, it turns out not one but TWO people were calling the shots at Fox and they didn’t (probably) see eye-to-eye.  Again, make no mistake about it – Fox has suffered a string of costly settlements and PR disasters.  Their audience will put up with a lot, but as events with Glenn Beck proved there’s a limit out there somewhere.  It’s safe to say that limit is considerably more generous than it was when Beck’s cratering ratings led to his dismissal.  However things are just getting started with Smartmatic and Grossberg and all the stuff including the Special Master Fox avoided with Dominion will be talked about again.  Worse for Fox, some of those emails/communications of Carlson’s that had been redacted might well come out in unredacted form!

Rupert Murdoch has been hoping beyond hope that his Trump problem which was joined with Fox’s problems like co-joined twins would get solved for him.  He wouldn’t listen to his son and take his medicine.  He hoped.  And as the following scene from Deepwater Horizon notes: “Hope ain’t a tactic”

Hope Aint a Tactic | Deepwater Horizon (2016) – YouTube

I believe Lachlan Murdoch is Wahlberg’s character and Rupert is Malkovitch’s.  In real life, as we know BP management ignored warnings from those that ran the rig with disastrous results.

If I’m correct and Fox has for several years now had two people trying to run things in two different ways then Fox is actually vulnerable.  Sure, they can pay off the Dominion settlement, and an even larger one with Smartmatic which to our (again) bitter disappointment is what will eventually happen.  And Grossberg.  But those three lawsuits combined with others against other non-Fox people that Fox will get drawn in to makes for a string of PR disasters and financial losses (not just huge settlements but stock prices as well as News Corps’ ability to get regulatory approval in other countries) in a big way.

Now, add in the news from the past couple of days that Fox’s decision to frantically engineer an eleventh hour, hell almost last minute (the jury had been selected!) settlement was a belief that it couldn’t survive unredacted versions of emails, especially Carlson’s coming out.  I think it’s more than a little possible that in a years long period of trying to address institutional rot at Fox and limit damage if the joint venture Fox formed with the Trump WH we had two leaders giving different orders.  NOT what is needed to avoid disaster when engaged in ongoing problems/conflict.

Fox might, just might turn out to be vulnerable after all.

Like so many others Rupert Murdoch hoped that Trump would go away, or that Democrats would solve their problem for them and let them make gobs of cash trashing Democrats for doing what he/the GOP power brokers didn’t have the guts to do.

But again, “Hope ain’t a tactic.”