Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch’s liberal son will host President Joe Biden this week at his tony Manhattan home for a fundraiser for Senate Democrats.
James Murdoch, who broke with his father and brother, Lachlan, to support liberals and Left-wing policies, is trying to help the Democrats stave off a red wave in November. He and his wife, environmental activist Kathryn Murdoch, left his 91-year-old father’s Fox News empire in 2020 months after cashing in when the media mogul sold off key parts to Disney for some $71 billion.
“Spreading disinformation — whether about the election, public health, or climate change — has real world consequences,” James and Kathryn Murdoch said at the time. “Many media property owners have as much responsibility for this as the elected officials who know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies.”
#JamesMurdoch extended an olive branch to #JoeBiden despite the president calling his father, #RupertMurdoch, dangerous.https://t.co/pzsa7wxJh0
— Radar Online (@radar_online) September 30, 2022
The 49-year-old scion went on to spend $100 million of the money he made from his father’s empire to support the Quadrivium foundation, which gave millions to groups supporting Biden and opposing Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
James Murdoch’s older brother Lachlan remains in the family business and serves as co-chairman of News Corp and executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation.
Last year, Business Insider reported that James was “running a whisper campaign that Lachlan is not good at his job and that he doesn’t deserve it.” Lachlan, who now lives in Sydney despite plunking down $150 million in 2019 for the California mansion that was home to TV’s “Beverly Hillbillies,” told the outlet Fox News is a counterweight to far-Left social media companies that control information.
“If Facebook or Twitter and others ultimately become a bias filter for the facts that we take as truth in the world, I think that’s really dangerous and a sort of scary world to live in,” he said.
Biden once allegedly called Rupert Murdoch “the most dangerous man in the world” and Fox News “one of the most destructive forces in the United States.”
Biden, who will raise money in New Jersey with Governor Phil Murphy Thursday before crossing the Hudson River to appear at James and Kathryn Murdoch’s home, has been focused on raising money for his party as it faces a near-certain loss of House control and a pitched battle for a Senate majority. Senate races in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada could swing the current 50-50 deadlock either way.
An official with the Democratic National Committee told Reuters Biden has helped the DNC raise a midterm record $271 million during the current election cycle and more than $107 million so far this year — “the most at this point in any year.”