Exclusive | Donald Trump’s Twitter use is ‘liberating’, Rupert Murdoch has ‘less influence’, says ex-PM Malcolm Turnbull
- In a wide-ranging interview, the ousted former Australia prime minister argues mainstream media has less influence than it ever has
- Calls treatment he received by Chinese media after quoting former Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong ‘utterly offensive’
Right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch is widely described as one of the architects of the rise of Donald Trump, Brexit in the United Kingdom and the ousting of Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last year.
But Turnbull believes that the influence of news baron Murdoch – who owns pro-Trump broadcaster Fox News in the United States, pro-Brexit newspaper The Sun in the UK and highly influential newspaper publisher News Corp Australia – is on the wane despite his role in the “coup” from the right wing of Turnbull’s own Liberal Party in August 2018.
“I think Murdoch has less influence in Australian politics than he has had for a very long time. I think the mainstream media has less influence that it ever has. Where several of his platforms are very influential is not with the electorate, but with members of the Liberal Party and the National Party,” said Turnbull in an expansive interview with the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong this week.
Turnbull admits phoning Murdoch to seek clarity, angry at a “whole campaign to defenestrate me being supported in his newspapers” and Murdoch’s role in “the would be coup” that eventually ended up with Scott Morrison becoming Australia’s Prime Minister.
Murdoch’s News Corp Australia titles account for 59 per cent of the sales of all daily newspapers in Australia.
