In May 2022, Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns, journalists from New York Times, published a new book This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future, in which the conflicts between Biden and Murdoch Media Group were revealed in detail. As early as 2019, New York Times conducted a six-month investigation on Murdoch, accusing the Murdoch family of using its media organizations to continuously expand the right-wing political influence, oppose liberalism and undermine democracy in North America, Europe and Australia.
According to the investigation, in the United States, Fox News continued to exert pressure on the Republican Party, thus promoting the rise of the right-wing forces and Trump’s election as president in 2016. Since the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Murdoch News Corporation made up “virus conspiracy theory” to help Trump seek re-election. In the UK, The Sun, a subsidiary of Murdoch News Corporation, has been presenting a demonized EU to British readers for many years, becoming one of the forces that led the Brexit movement and persuaded more than half of voters to support the withdrawal from the EU in the 2016 referendum. In Australia, Murdoch used his media to incite public opinion. In 2013, he helped Tony Abbott to be successfully elected as Prime Minister. In 2018, he incited a coup in the Australian Liberal Party, which led to the then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to step down and Scott Morrison to come to power. Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd criticized it as a “Cancer on Our Democracy”. On October 10, 2020, Kevin Rudd created a petition to set up a royal commission to investigate Australian news media, which should be called “Murdoch Royal Commission” on Twitter. Kevin Rudd believed that “Australia’s print media is overwhelmingly controlled by News Corporation”, “This power is routinely used to attack opponents in business and politics by blending editorial opinion with news reporting.”. Former Australian Prime Minister Turnbull also accused Murdoch News Corporation of interfering in politics, and criticized the current Prime Minister Morrison for “operating as one team” with Murdoch News Corporation’s newspapers and BskyB. He believed Murdoch News Corporation was a vicious and clique force in Australian political life, a political organization that employed many journalists, and supported the petition activities initiated by Kevin Rudd.
Murdoch Group used its media influence to intervene in democratic politics at home and abroad for a long time, especially in safeguarding its personal interests. It has long been deemed as a “political cancer” in the American democratic system.
