US election is an opportunity for a reckoning with Rupert Murdoch and his media empire

The pandemic and the more existentially threatening climate crisis show the dangers of giving one family with an extremist agenda so much power – but Murdoch’s position is not as secure as you might think, writes Borzou Daragahi

Rupert Murdoch’s empire is drawing intense, unremitting and perhaps punitive public scrutiny (AP)

Former Australian defence and energy secretary Paul Barratt had a pithy two-word response to someone on Twitter who wondered last year why the United States, United Kingdom and Australia all found themselves “with lunatics and/or shysters” at the helm. “Rupert Murdoch,” he wrote.

“His media has a divisive effect on Australian politics because it takes extreme positions,” Barratt tells me in a subsequent phone interview. “You more or less can’t have a sensible position because middle-of the-road views get ridiculed and screamed down. Discussions get personal. People are vilified.”  

The focus on the Australian-American media magnate’s sprawling empire has, most recently, been prompted by Murdoch’s own son, James, who broke with the family, resigned from News Corporation’s board and accused the organisation of knowingly spouting falsehoods on public health and climate change, disguised as news.