Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch’s Feud Heats up and is Getting Nasty

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Although the bad blood between News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch, and former President Donald Trump, has simmered for months, Trump is now blasting Truth Social posts that criticize the man in charge at Fox News, NY Post, and Wall Street Journal.

Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News in a $1.6B defamation lawsuit. The suit claims that Fox News knowingly mislead the company by publishing stories doubting the accuracy and reliability of their voting machines.

Murdoch said last week that he had serious concerns about the story and that he would have liked for us to be more strong in denouncing the story in hindsight. Trump responded by posting two posts, one blasting Paul Ryan, former Speaker of the House and Fox Board Member.

Murdoch was then personally challenged by him.

Trump was back at it Monday. He claimed that the movie “2000 Mules” by Dinesh Da’Souza, and the Twitter Files demonstrating big-tech censorship, were proof of a rigged electoral process:

Trump’s animosity had probably been growing for several months. I reported last November that Murdoch had changed the page on Donald Trump and was now throwing his considerable news empire behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He even sent his son and Fox News co-chairman Lachlan to inform DeSantis.

Both the Wall Street Journal (NY) and the NY Post published mocking articles against Trump after the midterm elections. The former called him “the Republican Party’s biggest loser”, while the Post used the headline “Trumpty Dumbty.”

There are now reports that the network may have gone so far as imposing a soft ban against Trump

Semafor, a news startup reports that Trump is being held back by a “soft ban” (or “silent ban”) due to the cooling in relations with his once-loved cable news channel. Since September, when he spoke with Sean Hannity, his closest friend and one of the network’s most popular hosts, Trump has not appeared on Fox News weekdays. It should be noted that Trump called Hannity on Monday night.

In the meantime, Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and DeSantis have been regularly seen on the outlet over recent weeks.

Murdoch’s problem is that he is stuck between two rocks and a hard spot. Both Murdoch and Lachlan love DeSantis. However, his top anchors as well as many of his viewers don’t want to lose heart just yet. Murdoch might be able to keep Trump talk quiet during the day. But if he attempts to tell his primetime moneymakers Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters to stop talking about Trump, it will lead to an internal war.

Many viewers have not yet forgiven Fox for calling Arizona “Biden” before the 2020 election. They could drift to outlets such as Newsmax, OAN, and Right Side Broadcasting Network.

Trump’s visibility has been seriously diminished by the fact that the network doesn’t cover him. Trump’s news presence is also less strong since the ex-prez refuses to return to Twitter following his ban being lifted.

It will be interesting for both sides to find a peaceful solution to this dispute, which does not seem to be in their best interests. While many may prefer DeSantis to be the Republican nominee, few people argue that he is as charismatic and will attract as many viewers.

Conservatives complain often about the biases of mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times or the network news. Fox is openly conservative, but I don’t like them backing one GOP candidate over the other–and putting a soft ban against Trump. This doesn’t feel “fair and balanced.”