Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin can only dream of the success that Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and the rest of his News Corp. empire has had in dividing America against each other and undermining our faith in political institutions.

That’s what former Australian prime minister Malcom Turnbull, who has known Murdoch for 45 years, told a parliamentary committee that is investigating the over-the-top influence that News Corp. has in Australia, where it controls 60 percent of the print media.

Turnbull blamed Fox News for broadcasting a continued stream of partisan attacks and misinformation, such as Joe Biden “stealing” the presidential election, that set the stage for the Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol.

During the Trump presidency, Fox took on the role that state-owned media enjoy in authoritarian countries. “I have never seen a politician as deferential to a media proprietor as Trump was to Murdoch, ever, in any country,” said Turnbull, according to a report in the Financial Times. "Murdoch’s media had a symbiotic relationship with Trump.”

Turnbull testified at the inquiry after a petition calling for a probe of Murdoch’s media holdings in Australia garnered more than 500K signatures.

Australians have had enough of News Corp.

Will Fox give Tucker Carlson the boot? That would be the right thing to do as the network’s star anchor is sliding closer and closer to the precipice.

The Anti-Defamation League gave Fox News fair notice, calling Carlson’s extreme race-baiting is “dangerous stuff.”

In an April 9 letter to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt took aim at Carlson’s “impassioned defense of the white suupremacist ‘great replacement theory’, the hateful notion that the white race is in danger of being ‘replaced’ by a rising tide of non-whites.”

His rhetoric “was not just a dog whistle to racists—it was a bullhorn,” wrote Greenblatt.

The great replacement theory is a white supremacist trope that is discussed daily in the online racist fever swamps. “It is the notion that fueled the hateful chants of ‘Jews will not replace us!’ in Charlottesville in 2017. And it has lit the fuse in explosive hate crimes, most notably the hate-motivated mass shooting attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso, as well as Christchurch, New Zealand,” wrote Greenblatt.

The ADL head is shocked to hear the open-ended endorsement of white supremacist idealogy from an anchor and commentator on Fox. Carlson’s full-on embrace of the great replacement theory and “repeated allusion to racist themes in past segments are a bridge too far.”

He believes it's time for Carlson to go, a move that would undoubtedly rile up Fox fans, and renew calls to shift viewing allegiances to Newsmax and One America News Network.

Carlson’s show is the top-rated cable TV network’s top-rated primetime program.

Rupert should make the call, which comes down to a choice between dollars and moral sense.

Does the 90-year-old media baron want his legacy tarnished for supporting a guy who calls the idea of white supremacy a hoax and earns kudos from former Klansman David Duke?

Is that really what he wants to be remembered for?