James Murdoch, a son of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, says he resigned from his father's company because it promotes misinformation - and he condemned U.S. President Donald Trump for playing down the international health crisis and "infecting the U.S. with cruelty."
After quitting News Corp, Murdoch set his sights on spending in digital businesses that curb the spread of false information on the internet. He said distinguished news organizations shouldn't disseminate confusion and blur facts - and he left the family business because of conflicting views on how decisions were made.
Murdoch said there was friction over editorial content published by News Corp and other decisions. In an interview with The New York Times he said that after his father rejected recommendations to replace the late Roger Ailes he realized it was futile to reshape Fox News.
News Corp controls publications including New York Post and The Wall Street Journal and several news companies in Rupert Murdoch's native Australia. Asked if he watches Fox News he said: "Sometimes...if there's an important thing, like an important interview or something like that," Mail Online quoted him as saying.
In July, Murdoch announced his departure from News Corp and attributed this to his apprehension with the way Fox News delivered the news. His capacity to decide on the editorial content of publications was restricted as a board member. Popular hosts on Fox are Trump supporters and it has disseminated fallacy about COVID-19 and climate change, Business Insider reported.
Murdoch said he felt awkward with his position on the network and that it wasn't "that hard a decision to detach myself and have a kind of cleaner slate," Independent quoted him as saying. "There are views that I really disagree with on Fox," he said.
Murdoch said he and his father had been at odds over politics since he was a teenager. When Trump was elected president, the younger Murdoch grew increasingly agitated with News Corp's resolve and how it portrayed certain news stories as "fact," he said.
