Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull testified Monday that right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch has done more to divide and damage America with the help of Donald Trump than Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does Vladimir Putin want to do with his operations in America? He wants to divide America and turn Americans against each other,\u201d said Turnbull at a parliamentary hearing in Sydney on media diversity. \u201cThat is exactly what Murdoch has done: Divided Americans against each other and so undermined their faith in political institutions that a mob of thousands of people, many of them armed, stormed the Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turnbull said that instead of appealing to the mainstream, media companies like Murdoch\u2019s thrive by cultivating the fringe.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust reflect on the damage that Murdoch\u2019s publications and outlets, particularly in the United States, have done to democracy there,\u201d Turnbull said.\u00a0\u201cI mean, the Jan. 6th sacking of the U.S. Capitol was one of the most terrible events in American history.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The parliamentary hearing was prompted by a petition that was signed by half a million Australians calling for an investigation into Murdoch\u2019s media empire.<\/p>\n
Turnbull said Murdoch\u2019s News Corp. operations, notably Fox News, were \u201cutterly liberated from the truth,\u201d and had a chilling connection with Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve hung around billionaire media proprietors for a long time. I have never seen a politician as deferential to a media proprietor as Trump was to Murdoch, ever, in any country,\u201d said Turnbull. \u201cMurdoch\u2019s media in the U.S. had a symbiotic relationship with Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n
News Corp. has become a political party yet it faces no accountability, Turnbull said. He also accused Murdoch\u2019s news operations of climate change denialism, incitement of animosity and violence toward minorities, and peddling bald-faced lies, including that Trump lost a rigged election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t think that is a threat to American democracy and undermining the strength and capability of our most important ally, then you are kidding yourself,\u201d Turnbull said.<\/p>\n
In testimony earlier this year News Corp. executives denied that editors were told what stories to produce, and denied that its news operations engaged in character assassination and lying.<\/p>\n