Kara Swisher Blasts Rupert Murdoch As ‘Single Most Destructive Force’ In Media, Predicts ‘Underwhelming’ Son Won’t Remain In Control
CNN’s Christian Amanpour interviewed tech journalist Kara Swisher and veteran British journalist Andrew Neil about the legacy of Rupert Murdoch, who recently stepped down as chairman of Fox and News Corps, on Thursday.
Amanpour pressed Swisher on her past criticism of Murdoch as a “destructive force.”
“I actually think he’s the most single destructive force in America, England and Australia,” Swisher replied. “That’s a little bigger than that. But that stuff that his publications have done and his media power has done, but it is in its waning days.”
“Why do you say destructive?” Amanpour followed up.
“Oh, the you know, combined with gerrymandering and social media, it’s created a sort of this tsunami of disinformation, of not understanding where truth and lies are of, you know, tabloidism, which I think has been around longer. So I’m not as concerned about that. You know what a soccer star is doing? I don’t care or whatever. But I think it’s really created this sort of very cynical idea about facts,” she replied, adding:
And you saw it in that trial, the Dominion trial. They pushed it as far as they could go, and they finally had to pay the price, which was quite costly. And they’re about to do the Smartmatic case, too, where they’re going to have to pay up big time for this lack of I would say it’s laziness, but I think it’s deliberate is what was happening.
Amanpour asked Swisher during another section of the interview about what happens to the media empire without Rupert Murdoch.
“And have you interviewed, I’m sure you’ve reported on, Lachlan Murdoch, who’s being handed the reins now. Andrew Neil had a pretty dim view of what he might achieve. But what do you think is the next phase of this empire, if it’s collapsing as we know it, what next?” asked the CNN anchor.
“Well, I haven’t interviewed him. He’s not, we’ve asked, of course. I think he’s, I’ve interviewed Rupert several times, actually. He’s he’s always game for an interview. And I’ve interviewed James and I think I’ve interviewed Liz when she did a lot of her media stuff,” Swisher replied, adding:
But Lachlan has been rare and I think it’s for good reason. I think he’s, I think he’s underwhelming compared to his father. I think he’s been propped up by his father. And the real problem is the trust that controls it.
When Rupert dies, as inevitably he will, although most people still aren’t going to turn their back on him, I suspect long after he’s shed the mortal coil. I think he he set it up. And so the four children, Lachlan, James, Liz and Prudence are going to have to make decisions together. And from what I understand, the three siblings are united in not wanting Lachlan to run it. And so I think this move was a little bit about showing Lachlan that he can do it, showing that Lachlan can do it to signal it. And so I think they’re trying to he’s trying to show that Lachlan is his chosen successor, but it doesn’t matter because he will not have control after he dies.
Watch the full clip above via CNN.
