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Donald Trump is clearly scared of Lachlan Murdoch. And he’s afraid to say much about the news that Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from running Fox News and News Corp lest he roil one of the family members.
For the usually unbridled, edited voluble Trump this near silence is deafening. All he said about it on social media was: “Many people are saying that,”You forced Rupert Murdoch into retirement!” I do not believe this is so…”
The real Donald Trump would have reached back to various slights Murdoch had exacted on him, and what he thought of his son taking over — maybe akin to Trump and his two dolts of sons running Trump Organization.
We don’t get to see Trump walking a tightrope, or being tight lipped so this working sticking a pin in it for future reference.
You’re still not getting it about Global Citizen, which puts on a new concert in Central Park on Saturday. Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lauryn Hill are headliners. ABC is broadcasting the show, which always has poor ratings. A newly divorced Hugh Jackman is their pitchman.
They haven’t put a dent in global poverty. But they have 10 executives who earn over $200,000 a year. Two of those make well over $400,000 a year.
Get it?
So let’s start there. On their Form 990 tax return for 2021, salaries were nearly $13 million, and they finished the year with revenue minus expenses at NEGATIVE $6 million.
Here is what they spent on producing their rock concerts to save the world. Imagine if this money had gone to feeding the poor or building them homes or supplying healthcare:
But let’s be fair. In 2021, Global Citizen did give away over $6 million. Internationally, the largest donation — almost $3 million — went to countries in Europe. They specify Ireland and Greenland, where we don’t often see reports of glaring poverty. Asia and South America received the lower payments because, as we all know, they are thriving. (This is sarcasm.)
In the US and North America, the biggest donation was $1 million — not to feed or clothe or educate the desperately poor people in the South, where floods and hurricanes cause devastation every year. No, that $1 million went to a New York City based group called Headcount, a group that uses music to get people to register to vote. They do their work at rock concerts this weekend, which is fine, but seems a waste of Global Citizen’s money — and maybe a surprise to people at the concerts to find out where the money is going.
Global Citizen doesn’t actually care what any of their recipients does with their money. Right there on the Form 990 they say in ALL CAP, that they DO NOT REQUIRE GRANT REPORTING FROM ITS GRANTEES.
As we know, Donald Trump does not hold back from speaking on any subject.
On his Truth Social. he’s railed against his judges and prosecutors so much that Jack Smith had to get a gag order against him.
Trump has threatened witnesses, warned off competitors, and is now pouring on negative comments about Joe Biden, Chris Christie, and Ron De Santis.
But it’s been four hours since Rupert Murdoch announced he’s stepping down from running Fox News and News Corp including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal.
Trump’s unbridled response? Crickets. Nothing. He hasn’t said a word.
Trump was obviously caught off guard by the announcement. Murdoch shared the advance word with no one. But Trump is obviously a little nervous about what to do next. He has no relationship with Lachlan Murdoch. Trump has always dealt with and at Rupert, whose endorsement he needs in his futile effort to regain the White House.
Also Trump has castigated Fox News as recently as this morning, criticizing Fox and Friends for not running some poll showing Trump ahead in his red states.
So now what? We’ll wait and see what he does in relation to Lachlan and how he proceeds from here. But silence is not his strong suit. I’ll update if he finally hits the keys on his phone.
UPDATE At 10am, an hour after the announcement, the Post has placed a small item on its website’s front page, below the big main Biden story. A little insulting!
EARLIER Rupert Murdoch really left his own NY Post dangling in the dark.
Fully fifty minutes after the announcement he was resigning as chairman of News Corp and Fox News, the Post still doesn’t have a story up on their website.
Their lead story is about Biden fumbling at something, and there’s no other story on the site.
Is the Post in denial? Or were they just caught unaware?
I feel bad for the Post people. They’re probably already wondering what this all means for them anyway.
Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement about his father:
“On behalf of the Fox and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career. We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted. We are grateful that he will serve as Chairman Emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”
Rupert Murdoch is leaving his role as head of News Corp and Fox News just as the company is suffering staggering legal blows.
Already this year Dominion Voting has won $787 million from Murdoch in a libel case about voter fraud. The jury decision is devastating even if insurance pays part of it.
Fox News and News Corp still face a second and bigger libel suit from Smartmatic, another voting machine company alleging libel in the 2020 election.
Lies are told on Fox News on a daily basis. At the New York Post, the printed lies and insults can’t be taken back. For example, several years ago the Post printed pictures on their front page of the men they said were the bombers at the Boston Marathon. They were completely wrong.
During Rupert’s recent years, Fox News has also had to make payouts to many women who claimed sexual harassment. The network has also let go of two of its biggest stars, Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carlson, for respectively sexual misconduct and dangerous lunacy.
How will a post-Murdoch world deal with Smartmatic and other pressures? Will the Post — which loses millions every year and has no pay wall — survive? Everything changes now as Lachlan Murdoch becomes a relatively young press baron.
Just like Logan Roy on “Succession,” Murdoch has finished his run as head of global news media conglomerate he started. Only Rupert didn’t wait to keel over. He has resigned as of next month.
Murdoch is turning News Corp, Fox News and all of it over to his own “Kendall,” son Lachlan. Rupert will likely a Chairman Emeritus, saying he’ll advise his son. But the 92 year old will no longer shape the daily opinions of millions of readers.
Murdoch gave the surprise story to CNBC, which broke it at 9am. As of 9:23am, the New York Post– which he owns — didn’t have it on their website. Fox News. which he also owns, played the story as Murdoch transitioning to Chairman Emeritus, not resigning or stepping down. But that’s what he’s doing,
What will this mean for Donald Trump? Murdoch fluctuates in his support of Trump, not knowing what to as the four time indicted ex president continually complains about him, then panders to him. Will Lachlan Murdoch find his own GOP candidate?
And what does this mean for the New York Post? Rupert Murdoch’s pet newspaper has staggering losses every year. Will Lachlan shut down the print part of the paper? Or sell the whole thing? And is there anyone to buy it? Stay tuned…
Jann Wenner has cancelled all promotional events for his new book, “The Masters.”
A notice went out from the 92nd St. Y this evening cancelled Wenner’s planned Q&A with Cameron Crowe set for October 18th. Crowe made his career at Rolling Stone in the 1970s — see the movie “Almost Famous.”
It’s a stunning turn of events for Wenner, whose entire legacy has been destroyed in one week by his comments in the New York Times last week. He said that female and Black performers were too inarticulate to be interviewed and he wasn’t interested in them anyway.
In pre sales on amazon, “The Masters” has dropped to number 3,595.
All the studio chiefs met today with the Writers Guild and will continue negotiating tomorrow, according to a WGA post.
The sudden seriousness of the studios is welcomed as the deadline looms for the 2023-24 TV season. If the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes aren’t resolved by early October, my sources say it will be impossible to put on a season.
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, Universal’s Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav were present today for the negotiations, a sure sign that the studios are finally in panic mode. There are no daytime or nighttime talk shows, no new material on TV, and actors can’t promote the fall and winter movies. The actors have already missed the Telluride, Venice, and Toronto Film Festivals. Now the New York Film Festival looms, as does the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Watch for the studios to give in with a carefully worded announcement that saves face but gives the WGA important concessions.
Steve Martin and Martin Short have cancelled their sold out shows in Las Vegas this weekend.
Martin writes: “Dear fans and enemies, Unfortunately, our sold-out shows at the Wynn in Las Vegas this Friday and Saturday has to be postponed because of rampant Covid in our crew and one other essential guy. We are sorry for any inconvenience, but we are moving to mid-December, where your tickets will be honored with an added “date-moving tax,” of nine thousand dollars.”
Jimmy Kimmel and late night colleagues Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert were supposed to raise money for their crews at a Vegas Strike Force show. But no. Kimmel Tweeted: “Well, Las Vegas, I got Covid, and sadly, we need to cancel this weekend’s Strike Force Three show. I could never live with myself if I got my hometown friends sick. Thanks to all who purchased tickets, everyone will get full refunds and we will try to reschedule if possible.”
This is why yours truly got the new vaccine on Monday. Don’t listen to Robert Kennedy Jr. and Eric Clapton, who are now Nuts-in-Arms. Get the vaccine! If famous people can get it again we are all at risk!
PS The US govt will start giving out free COVID tests next week again– they know something is happening!
PPS Sorry for Martin and Short, but you can watch the new episode of “Only Murders in the Building” now on Hulu. Meryl Streep has some big plot twists!
Peacock hand delivered this crate of goodies all over New York and LA today to television writers, press junketeers, and so on. (Not me. I’m not in that group!)
The crate — which looks pretty expensive — is to promote the Peacock Mel Gibson John Wick miniseries coming this weekend called “The Continental.”
So far, reviews are pretty bad, with only a 47% of 37 critics liking it. (I’ll try and watch it when it hits Peacock.) Indiewire wrote: “The Continental” soon crumbles under its impossible burdens. The action is plentiful, yet can’t compare, the storytelling is careless, beyond repair, and the realization of vaunted myths, well, buyer beware.”
The fact that Mel Gibson, antisemite and racist, is in it should be enough to turn elsewhere for entertainment. They say it’s a limited series, and that’s apparently true.
But Peacock must have felt they would get some PR from the recipients of the bourbon, whiskey, bitters, and a glass decanter. And here it is.
