Rupert Murdoch Picks Liberal Son As Successor
By Cliff Kincaid
December 12, 2007
Sean Hannity, the conservative Republican commentator who takes on such controversial issues as Hillary Clinton's legal work in a communist law firm, could be on his way out of the Fox News Channel as a result of Rupert Murdoch's decision to turn the company over to his liberal son James.
James Murdoch, 34, who buys into global warming hysteria, has in recent days been labeled the "News Corporation Heir" and "Son King" because of changes in the company that have dramatically increased his power. The Fox News Channel is one part of Murdoch's News Corporation.
While James Murdoch is based in London and is now being given control of News Corp's business in Europe and Asia, he is scheduled to take control of U.S. operations when Peter Chernin, the president of News Corporation who is based in New York, steps down. Chernin is himself a prominent Democrat.
James Murdoch is said to have convinced his father, 76, to "go green" in a major May 9 speech. In the speech, Rupert Murdoch sounded like Al Gore, saying that "Climate change poses clear, catastrophic threats" and that "We may not agree on the extent, but we certainly can't afford the risk of inaction."
Marc Gunther of Fortune magazine commented that "Murdoch has boldly promised to make News Corp. carbon neutral by 2010 and to weave environmental issues and themes into his newspapers, TV shows, movies and online properties―a tricky business, particularly when it comes to news." (emphasis added)
The Hillary front organization known as Media Matters has challenged Murdoch to rein in the various Fox News personalities, including Hannity, who have voiced skepticism about the man-made global warming theory. The group complains that conservative voices on Fox far outnumber "progressive" voices and that Fox anchors, reporters, and guests inject pro-Republican views into the shows.
Murdoch's decision to hand the European and Asian operations of his company to his son James has been widely interpreted as a sign that James will soon inherit control of the entire company. That means that James' liberal philosophy on environmental and other matters could become the party line not only of News Corporation but the Fox News Channel. Fox News already has come under conservative criticism for airing a Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. special that claimed human activity was causing global warming.
The New York Times has described James Murdoch as "steadfastly liberal" and notes that he "has supported Bill Clinton and Al Gore whose daughter he befriended at Harvard." James Murdoch, who dropped out of Harvard, runs BSkyB, a part of News Corporation which is airing Current TV, a television project sponsored by Gore, and the foreign--financed Al-Jazeera and Al-Jazeera English television channels.
The London Telegraph reports that "Thanks to friendships with Al Gore and Bill Clinton, he [James Murdoch] has developed deep green instincts..." His father made a $500,000 gift to the Clinton Global Initiative.
"I've gotten to know Al [Gore] in a number of different contexts in the last number of years," James Murdoch told the Financial Times in an interview. (web site) We "think the same way about the necessity of being realistic concerning the climate crisis," Gore piped in during the same interview.
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