Podcasts about old media empires

A court room in the US State of Nevada provided the setting for the recent hearing between media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his children, over who will inherit his empire on the 93 year old's death. The succession battle, worthy of the TV drama Succession, which was partly inspired by the Murdoch dynasty, was played out behind closed doors and it's unlikely that the decision, when it comes, will be made available to the public. Murdoch's News Corp owns hundreds of newspapers and media outlets around the world. It includes the right-leaning Fox News in the US, which gave Donald Trump a major platform in the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, as well as widely read newspapers like the Sun in the UK. Speculation over who is most likely to take control of the multi-billion dollar business currently centres around the eldest son Lachlan Murdoch, the sibling most closely aligned to his father in terms of their vision for the future. But at this point the outcome all depends on whether legally such a takeover can happen. So, on this week's Inquiry, we're asking ‘What's the succession plan for Murdoch's empire?' Contributors: Walter Marsh, Journalist and Author of Young Rupert: The Making of the Murdoch Empire, South Australia David Folkenflik, Media Correspondent NPR News, Author of Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires, USA Reid Weisbord, Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School, Visiting Professor, Columbia University, USA Alice Enders, Chief Economist, Enders Analysis, UK Presenter: Tanya Beckett Producers: Louise Clarke and Jill Collins Researcher: Matt Toulson Editor: Tara McDermott Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Broadcast Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson (Image: Reuters/Mike Segar)

When Fox News launched in 1996, critics joked about its incompetence. But just a few years later, the network proved itself to be a political force. On this week's On the Media, hear how Fox News rose to power during the election of 2000. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger introduce Slow Burn's host Josh Levin. Levin spoke with the hosts, reporters, and producers who built Fox News, many who've never spoken publicly before. And you'll hear from Fox's victims, who are still coming to terms with how the channel upended their lives.Further reading / listening:Slow Burn: The Rise of Fox News - SEASON 10Crazy Like a FOX: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN, by Scott. CollinsMurdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires, by David Folkenflik How to Steal an Election: The Inside Story of How George Bush's Brother and FOX Network Miscalled the 2000 Election and Changed the Course of History, by David W. MooreThe Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News-and Divided a Country, by Gabriel ShermanA portion of this episode originally aired on our September 25, 2024 podcast, OTM Presents Ep. 1 of Slow Burn's The Rise of Fox News: We Report. You Can Suck It. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Fox News – at least the part represented by the network's powerhouse evening talk shows – is often an unfettered disinformation machine. It has propagated myths, far-right talking points, and conspiracy theories with unencumbered gusto. Until that is, it helped circulate the Big Lie about electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It placed two voting machine companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, at the center of a scam…that wasn't a scam. That invited both companies' wrath and they have sued Fox for libel. A Delaware judge, Eric Davis, recently allowed Dominion's claim to proceed to trial – opening arguments were supposed to start this week but have been delayed. In moving the case along, Judge Davis indicated that he believed Dominion's claims had substantial merit and Fox's defenses might be built on sand. Joining Crash Course is David Folkenflik, the media correspondent for National Public Radio and the author of “Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, a conversation about the media and the Big Lie. Former President Donald Trump's repeated false assertions about the results of the 2020 election — that it was rigged by Democrats and that he, not Joe Biden, was the actual winner — have been ingrained in the public psyche for more than two years. Trump began making his outrageous claims even before the election was called for Joe Biden. It wasn't Trump's first lie, of course. The Washington Post kept a running tally of the false or misleading statements made by the former President during his four years in office. The ignominious total: 30,573. Trump made 492 suspect claims in his first 100 days in the White House. On the day before the 2020 election, the Post reports he made 503 false or misleading claims on that one day alone. In her new book, Confidence Man, journalist Maggie Haberman makes the point that the media wasn't prepared to cover a candidate or a President who lied so frequently, or so brazenly. If that's true, are we prepared now? Trump's propensity for malicious fiction predated his time in politics by decades. But his Big Lie about the election is without doubt the most pernicious of the many falsehoods he has uttered throughout his career. It led to a riot at the US Capitol and the deaths of five people. Has it also brought democracy to the brink of collapse? There is ample evidence that it has. The Big Lie has been picked up and embraced by a slew of Trump's fellow Republicans, as many as 370 across the country who are on the ballot next month. Here in Maryland, two candidates for statewide office, Dan Cox, who is running for Governor, and Michael Peroutka, who is running for Attorney General, are election deniers. Five candidates for the House of Representatives, one candidate for the US Senate, and Cox's running mate are also election deniers. Tom's two guests today have done yeomen's work in helping voters discern between that which is false and that which is true, and we're delighted they have joined us today to talk about how the media should approach coverage of people who deny the truth, for whatever reason. Jonathan Lemire is the host of Way Too Early on MSNBC and the White House Bureau Chief for POLITICO. He's the author of The Big Lie: Election Chaos, Political Opportunism, and the State of American Politics After 2020.  He joins us on Zoom from New York. David Folkenflik covers the media for NPR, and contributes to the NPR Web series called Untangling Disinformation.  He is the author of Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires. He joins us on Zoom from Montclair, NJ.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why did it take years of reporting before any news organizations could nail down the Harvey Weinstein story? NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik says previously, the allegations received only “twilight” coverage. He considers why NBC might have whiffed on the Weinstein story, and how the network’s hard pass is being recast in conservative circles. Folkenflik is the author of Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.  In the Spiel, who was the star of the New York City mayoral debate? It wasn’t Oxford-style discourse.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why did it take years of reporting before any news organizations could nail down the Harvey Weinstein story? NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik says previously, the allegations received only “twilight” coverage. He considers why NBC might have whiffed on the Weinstein story, and how the network’s hard pass is being recast in conservative circles. Folkenflik is the author of Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.  In the Spiel, who was the star of the New York City mayoral debate? It wasn’t Oxford-style discourse.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Roger Ailes' wife Elizabeth sent a statement on her husband's death to The Drudge Report instead of Fox News it was, according to NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik, "the final act of Roger Ailes' revenge" against the network he created. In an interview for the podcast NewsFeed with @BuzzFeedBen, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith talks with Folkenflik about Ailes' contentious relationship with the Murdochs and the way he wielded — and abused — his power as the head of Fox News. "It was a paranoid cult culture, it was a control culture, we knew that it was a punitive culture," said Folkenflik. In the interview, Folkenflik also talks about the allegations of sexual abuse that got Ailes kicked out of Fox News and how the network is navigating Trump's presidency without him. "The people who are in that [morning] meeting basically have a triptych, incense, candles, a hologram machine, designed to conjure up the spirit of Roger Ailes and figure out what the hell would he do if he was handed these cards to play," he said. David Folkenflik is the author of Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy National Limerick Day! (We’re sorry.) On The Gist, NPR’s David Folkenflik joins us to explain why he thinks the media failed the general public this year. He’s the author of Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires. For the Spiel, will Donald Trump be able to get the GOP’s buy-in?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For years, Rupert Murdoch has been “the most influential and important media figure in the English-speaking world,” according to National Public Radio media correspondent David Folkenflik, author of Murdoch’s World: The Last of the Old Media Empires. Folkenflik spoke with L.A. Observed publisher Kevin Roderick about how Murdoch has changed journalism not just at his own holdings but around the world at a program co-presented by ASU's Cronkite School of Journalism.