President Joe Biden privately went in on Fox News and the right-wing media tycoon who chairs its parent company, Rupert Murdoch, according to CNN’s excerpt of an upcoming book by New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns.
Biden called Murdoch “the most dangerous man in the world” during a conversation with an associate in mid-2021, Martin and Burns reported in their book on Biden’s presidency titled, “This Will Not Pass.”
The President also reportedly “assessed” Fox News as “as one of the most destructive forces in the United States.”
Biden has never publicly spoken about Murdoch, especially not in such biting terms, according to a data analysis of Biden’s speeches, tweets and other public comments that CNN cited.
The White House and Fox News did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.
Under Murdoch’s leadership at Fox Corporation, Fox News over the past several years has become a platform for right-wing disinformation on the COVID-19 vaccine, the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, all while laundering white nationalist talking points.
A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that Fox News viewers were more likely to believe in falsehoods about COVID-19 than people who watch other news outlets.
In fact, even former Fox executive Preston Padden publicly called out Murdoch in a scathing Daily Beast op-ed last year for failing to “understand the real damage that Fox News is doing to America.”
