The media mogul and the former president
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
Today on “Post Reports,” the changing relationship between former president Donald Trump and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and what it could mean for the future of American politics.
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Rupert Murdoch has swayed global politics through his media empire for decades. His relationship with former president Donald Trump was regarded as one of his strongest alliances, with Trump dominating the conservative media outlets Murdoch owns. But as media reporter Sarah Ellison explains, Trump and the Murdochs were aligned for mutual benefit – and that dynamic could be changing.
Correction: A previous version of this podcast mistakenly referred to 21st Century Fox instead of Fox Corporation. The Murdochs sold most of 21st Century Fox to Disney, and rebranded the assets they retained as Fox Corporation.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | For years now, Donald Trump has dominated certain media outlets, but lately something has |
| 0:09.2 | started to shift. |
| 0:11.0 | In general, what you've seen is a kind of de-emphasis of the sort of cult of personality of Donald |
| 0:18.5 | Trump that Fox News, the New York Post, even the Wall Street Journal to a certain degree |
| 0:25.4 | sort of occupied for the bulk of his presidency and certainly during the campaign. |
| 0:31.4 | And what you're seeing is kind of this element of new personalities in the Republican party |
| 0:38.2 | being tested out. |
| 0:42.7 | That is the Washington Post's Sarah Ellison. |
| 0:45.6 | She has been reporting on the media empire that has done more for Trump's political fortunes |
| 0:49.8 | than any other. |
| 0:51.2 | The one owned by Rubberd Murdock. |
| 0:54.1 | So he's made his fortune on reading the political wins and following them, even though he does |
| 1:01.8 | put his finger on the scale when he can. |
| 1:04.7 | The advantage of owning all kinds of different media properties is that he can do a lot of |
| 1:11.3 | different things at once. |
| 1:13.3 | Recently, several high-profile Trump scandals have put Trump and Murdock's relationship |
| 1:18.0 | to the test and into the spotlight. |
| 1:21.4 | There are very few relationships where the outcome of the relationship has such a big |
| 1:27.9 | effect on the politics of the country. |
| 1:31.6 | So we're all sort of living in their world and it's these two very old men dancing around |
| 1:38.6 | one another for dominance and sometimes mutual benefit and it's kind of impossible not |
| 1:44.5 | be interested in the outcome of what that's going to look like. |
... |
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