Newsmax likes to tweak Fox News, mostly for not being as right-wing and pro-Trump as it is. The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy freaked out about some heirs to Rupert Murdoch’s empire not being sufficiently far-right enough in a Feb. 19 article:
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s desired plan for succession would have left oldest son Lachlan in control of Fox News and News Corp.
But a recent court ruling and family in-fighting will likely leave his news empire in control of his left-leaning children who have vowed to radically change the network, according to press reports out last week.
Last year a Nevada court ruled the 93-year-old billionaire could not change his family trust after Murdoch sought to give his elder son, Lachlan, 52, control over his public companies. Lachlan is a Republican who is said to hold his father’s conservative views.
[…]The Times reported the elder Murdoch was motivated to change the family trust fearing this his children James, Prudence, and Elisabeth all had expressed concerns about the editorial positions of the family’s news outlets.
The Murdoch offsprings’ rebellion against the father’s wishes appears to be led by James Murdoch.
James was one of 88 corporate leaders who signed an open letter in September endorsing the Democrat presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. During the 2020 election, James and his wife spent a reported $20 million to defeat Donald Trump in his reelection bid.
[…]At the same time Rupert Murdoch is seeking to keep Fox more conservative, Trump has been harshly critical of the network.
During the 2024 campaign Trump claimed Fox “has totally lost its way” and previously blamed the network’s coverage for his 2020 election loss.
In early 2020, James and Kathryn Murdoch publicly criticized “some of the News Corp. and Fox coverage,” which played down climate change as a precipitating factor in fires sweeping across Australia.
The Media Research Center has similarly freaked out over James Murdoch failing to be a right-winger.
Newsmax then called on one of its hosts who used to work for Fox News to fearmonger about James Murdoch in a Feb. 20 article by Eric Mack:
Rupert Murdoch’s son James, the heir likely to control Fox News, “is an avowed leftist,” Newsmax host Ed Henry said Tuesday night.
Henry, a former Fox News host, told Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt that the elder Murdoch lost a major legal battle over his trust, giving three of his liberal children led by James control over the future of the network. [See: Fox News Heir Vows to Radically Change Network]
Henry told Schmitt that while Murdoch and his son Lachlan lean conservative, Newsmax has been growing because of uncertainty over Fox’s future. “Over at Fox, there’s deep concern,” Henry told Schmitt.
Even before the Murdoch family’s legal battles erupted publicly, the network has come under criticism for its move to the left on key issues.
“Over at Fox, there’s deep concern,” Henry told Schmitt.
Even before the Murdoch family’s legal battles erupted publicly, the network has come under criticism for its move to the left on key issues.
Neither Mack nor Schmitt mentioned the fact that the reason Henry is no longer with Fox News is because he was fired over allegations of sexual harassment, or that some Newsmax staffers opposed his hiring there. But Henry proved to be a suck-up to his current employer:
Trump for his part has encouraged his supporters to tune into Newsmax.
“Newsmax is terrific,” Trump said, adding that “millions of people are watching.”
Henry notes the changes are clearly helping to grow Newsmax’s audience.
“But Newsmax is obviously on the rise, and we continue to grow in large part because of concerns about the direction of Fox, because James, to your point, he is an avowed leftist,” Henry told Schmitt.
A March 21 article by Michael Katz further hyped the idea of rift between Trump and Fox News:
President Donald Trump has amplified his displeasure with mainstream media during the first two months of his second term and now appears to have Fox News in his crosshairs.
On Tuesday, Trump laid into Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who sits on the board of the White House Correspondents Association.
“I watched Jacqui Heinrich from Fox over the weekend and I thought she was absolutely terrible,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She should be working for CNN, not Fox. Not surprisingly, I later found out that she’s a fan of the White House Correspondents Association!”
Katz’s narrative ignores that Trump has hired more than 20 Fox News staffers to serve in his administration.