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Rupert Murdoch was reportedly very displeased with one of his media properties after it published a glowing profile of Oliver Darcy, who left CNN last year and started a media newsletter.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal called the newsletter “a must-read for the power brokers of publishing and entertainment.”
“Darcy’s newsletter, Status, which launched in August, is fueled by juicy tidbits about media deals, newsroom spats and executive moves,” the paper said. “He was first to report that then-New York Magazine correspondent Olivia Nuzzi had a romantic relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and that ABC News was going to re-sign anchor George Stephanopoulos last fall.”
On Tuesday, Breaker News – another media-focused newsletter, run by Lachlan Cartwright and Ravi Somaiya – reported that Murdoch called Journal editor-in-chief Emma Tucker to give her an earful. Darcy has been critical of Fox News, perhaps the most famous Murdoch property, which he calls a “propaganda network”:
In a splashy Wall Street Journal profile complete with artful portraits of
the subject and his new employee, media writer Isabella Simonetti trumpeted the success of former CNN journalist Oliver Darcy and his newsletter Status. “Oliver Darcy left CNN, one of the most recognized news outlets in the world, to start a newsletter,” Simonetti wrote. “It has quickly become a must-read for the power brokers of publishing and entertainment.”But, we have learned, one Journal reader was absolutely “livid” about the piece and made their complaints vehemently known to Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Journal, called Tucker and berated her about the article, a person with knowledge of the matter tells us. What may have drawn Murdoch’s rage? Darcy aggressively reports on another outlet Murdoch owns — Fox News — and regularly calls it a “propaganda network.” And in a piece for CNN’s Reliable Sources last year he criticised the Journal’s reporting on Joe Biden’s mental acuity. A rep for Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal declined to comment.
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