◼ Dossier
Rupert Murdoch
Founder, News Corp and Fox Corp. Controlling owner: Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Times (London), The Australian, The Sun, the New York Post. Net worth: ~$19 billion (Forbes, 2026).
Murdoch has hacked the phones of murder victims' grieving families. He has broadcast election lies he privately acknowledged were false. He has sheltered a culture of sexual predation for decades. He has manufactured climate confusion across three continents. No other individual has done more damage to Western democracy through the legal operation of media.
acts
News of the World editors and executives convicted for hacking phones of 7,000+ people
Murdoch's News of the World newspaper — at the time Britain's highest-circulation Sunday paper — ran a systematic, multi-year operation hacking the voicemails of celebrities, politicians, athletes, crime victims, and their families. Former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were convicted in 2007. Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was convicted in 2014. An estimated 7,000 people had their phones hacked. Murdoch shut down the paper in 2011 rather than face the full accounting.
- Clive Goodman (royal editor) and Glenn Mulcaire (private investigator) convicted January 2007; sentenced to four and six months.
- Andy Coulson — who had become David Cameron's communications director after leaving News of the World — convicted of conspiracy to hack phones in 2014.
- The hacking extended to Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old murder victim. News of the World hacked her phone while she was missing, deleting messages and giving her family false hope she was still alive.
- Scotland Yard estimated approximately 7,000 individuals had their phones targeted.
- Murdoch closed the News of the World in July 2011 — 168 years of publication ended to limit liability, not because anyone in management accepted accountability.
Source: Wikipedia — News International phone hacking scandal; CNN Fast Facts
News Corp paid over $1.5 billion to settle more than 1,300 hacking claims
The financial fallout from phone hacking exceeded £1 billion (approximately $1.24–1.5 billion). News UK — Murdoch's British newspaper arm — settled over 1,300 claims from individuals whose phones were illegally accessed. In 2025, the company settled with Prince Harry over unlawful intrusions covering the period 1996–2011. Murdoch personally admitted a cover-up had occurred within the organisation.
- Total estimated payments exceeding $1.5 billion across all hacking-related settlements.
- More than 1,300 individual claims settled, ranging from celebrities to ordinary citizens.
- Rupert Murdoch acknowledged in parliamentary testimony that a cover-up took place within News of the World.
- Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, settled in January 2025 after a trial was about to begin over phone hacking at British tabloids owned by News Group Newspapers.
- Former Prime Ministers and serving politicians also alleged their phones were hacked as part of the operation.
Source: CNN Business — "Dominion isn't Rupert Murdoch's costliest legal defeat. Not even close," April 2023
Fox News paid $787.5M to Dominion Voting Systems for broadcasting false election claims Murdoch privately knew were false
After the 2020 US presidential election, Fox News broadcast a sustained campaign of lies claiming that Dominion Voting Systems had manipulated vote counts to defeat Donald Trump. Internal documents revealed that Murdoch and senior Fox executives privately knew these claims were false, considered them "bulls---," and rejected the evidence behind them — but allowed hosts to amplify them anyway because they feared losing viewers to right-wing competitors. In April 2023, Fox settled with Dominion for $787.5 million — the largest publicly known defamation settlement in American history.
- Internal texts and emails revealed that Rupert Murdoch privately called the election fraud claims "bulls--- and damaging" and told colleagues he saw little supporting evidence.
- Murdoch testified that he "could have" ordered Fox hosts to stop promoting Giuliani's election lies, but chose not to.
- Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity — all privately dismissing election fraud claims in messages — continued broadcasting them publicly.
- $787.5 million settlement — Dominion had sought $1.6 billion. Fox settled without admitting wrongdoing, though the court's ruling found certain Dominion claims were false.
- A separate $2.7 billion defamation suit by Smartmatic, another voting technology company, proceeded separately.
Source: PBS NewsHour — "Fox News to pay $787M settlement to Dominion Voting Systems," April 2023; NPR
Fox News paid $90M+ to settle sexual harassment claims against Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly — Murdoch kept both in place for years
Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes, the architect of the network Murdoch built, was forced to resign in 2016 after numerous women came forward with sexual harassment allegations — including anchor Gretchen Carlson, who sued and received a $20 million settlement. Bill O'Reilly, Fox's star anchor, was later found to have paid over $45 million across multiple settlements for sexual harassment. According to reporting, Murdoch renewed O'Reilly's contract in 2017 despite knowing about a $32 million settlement. Both men operated in a documented culture of harassment that Murdoch presided over for years.
- Roger Ailes resigned from Fox News in July 2016 after multiple women — including Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson — publicly alleged sexual harassment.
- Gretchen Carlson settled for $20 million and received a public apology from 21st Century Fox.
- Bill O'Reilly settled five separate sexual harassment claims totaling over $45 million over 13 years.
- A 2017 New York Times investigation revealed that Murdoch renewed O'Reilly's contract while aware of a $32 million settlement — the largest individual payment.
- O'Reilly was finally terminated in April 2017 after the NYT investigation triggered advertiser backlash.
Source: Wikipedia — Roger Ailes; New York Times — Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment reporting (2017)
Murdoch renounced his Australian citizenship in 1985 solely to satisfy FCC ownership rules — then spent decades obtaining waivers to break them anyway
FCC rules prohibit foreigners from owning American broadcast licenses. To acquire the 20th Century Fox film studio and a chain of TV stations, Rupert Murdoch renounced his Australian citizenship in a Manhattan courtroom in September 1985 and became a U.S. citizen — by his own account, for no reason other than FCC compliance. Having cleared the ownership hurdle, his company then spent decades lobbying the FCC for cross-ownership waivers that let him hold both a daily newspaper and a TV station in the same market — arrangements the FCC's own rules explicitly prohibited. The 1993 permanent waiver granting him both the New York Post and WNYW-TV in the same market remains in force today.
- Murdoch became a U.S. citizen in September 1985 in a Manhattan federal court — the explicit purpose was satisfying the FCC's 25% foreign-ownership cap on broadcast licenses.
- FCC cross-ownership rules barred the same owner from holding a TV station and a daily newspaper in the same market. Murdoch's company obtained a 1993 permanent waiver for the New York Post and WNYW-TV — an arrangement the FCC's own rules prohibited.
- A second waiver allowed Fox to also hold WWOR-TV in the New York metro market, layering two prohibited positions on top of each other.
- Pew Research Center's 2007 analysis of Murdoch's U.S. regulatory history documented the pattern of waiver-seeking alongside citizenship acquisition.
Source: Pew Research Center — "Publisher Murdoch's U.S. Track Record," August 2007
Fox News hosts privately begged Trump to call off the January 6 attack — then spent months defending the rioters on air
On January 6, 2021, while rioters were storming the Capitol, Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade were privately texting Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows begging Trump to stop the attack. "The president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us," Ingraham wrote. Kilmeade: "Please get him on TV destroying everything you have accomplished." The same hosts then spent months on air defending the rioters, promoting the "antifa false flag" theory, and treating January 6 as a political persecution — a documented gap between their private knowledge and public broadcasting that runs directly through Murdoch's network.
- Laura Ingraham to Meadows, January 6 2021: "Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us."
- Sean Hannity to Meadows: "Can he make a statement?" — before going on-air that evening and suggesting the violence may have been orchestrated by antifa.
- Brian Kilmeade to Meadows: "Please get him on TV destroying everything you have accomplished."
- These private texts were released by the House January 6 Select Committee in December 2021. The Committee subsequently subpoenaed Hannity for additional communications.
- Rupert Murdoch's deposition in the Dominion case produced an additional acknowledgment that Fox hosts had "endorsed" stolen-election claims he privately knew were false.
- Separately, internal Fox messages in the Dominion litigation showed Tucker Carlson texting: "Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It's insane."
Fox News and News Corp properties have systematically misrepresented climate science for three decades
Multiple independent studies have documented Fox News's sustained campaign of climate science disinformation. A 2019 study found that 86% of Fox News climate segment discussions contained misleading content. The network's editorial direction flows directly from the Murdoch family, whose News Corp and Fox Corp subsidiaries span four continents. While Murdoch has occasionally stated he believes in climate change, his properties have functioned as the primary vehicle for manufacturing doubt about scientific consensus among American conservatives.
- A 2019 study in Environmental Research Letters found that 86% of climate change discussions on Fox News contained at least some misleading content.
- News Corp's Australian properties — including The Australian — have been widely criticized for systematic climate denial, particularly in the context of Australian climate and energy policy.
- Rupert Murdoch's son James Murdoch publicly resigned from the News Corp board in 2020, citing "disagreements over certain editorial content" including climate coverage.
- Fox News hosts have spent decades describing the scientific consensus on climate change as a hoax or exaggeration — with measurable effect on conservative public opinion.
- The Guardian's 2022 analysis found that Murdoch-owned Sky News Australia broadcast dozens of climate denial segments in a single six-month period.
◼ List of charges
01
×7000 countsIllegal Surveillance of Private Citizens
5 – 15 years per count = 35000–105000 years
Statute: Unauthorized interception of private communications — including voicemail, phone calls, or electronic messages — for journalistic or commercial purposes.
Basis: News of the World systematic hacking of ~7,000 people including murder victim Milly Dowler; editor Andy Coulson convicted; Murdoch acknowledged cover-up in parliamentary testimony; $1.5B+ in settlements
02
Mass Disinformation Campaign
10 – 25 years
Statute: Sustained, knowing, large-scale publication of false or misleading information to an audience exceeding 10 million, causing documentable public harm.
Basis: Fox News broadcast election lies Murdoch privately knew were false ($787.5M Dominion settlement); hosts privately begged Trump to stop Jan 6 attack while publicly defending rioters; 86% of Fox climate segments contained misleading content (peer-reviewed); manufactured climate confusion across three continents
03
Press Freedom Suppression
5 – 15 years
Statute: Systematic interference with independent journalism through ownership, legal harassment, financial pressure, or direct editorial interference to benefit personal or financial interests.
Basis: Fox News shielded culture of sexual predation (Ailes, O'Reilly; $90M+ in settlements); Murdoch renewed O'Reilly contract knowing about $32M settlement; editorial interference benefiting personal business interests across global properties
04
Funding Climate Denial
25 – life
Statute: Deliberate funding of research, advocacy, or media designed to mislead the public and policymakers about anthropogenic climate change, causing intergenerational harm.
Basis: Fox News, News Corp, and Sky News Australia systematic climate science disinformation for decades; James Murdoch resigned from News Corp board citing climate coverage disagreements; measured effect on conservative public opinion
05
×5 countsUse of NDA to Suppress Sexual Misconduct
5 – 15 years per count = 25–75 years
Statute: Deployment of non-disclosure agreements, payments, or legal threats to silence victims of sexual harassment, assault, or misconduct — per documented settlement.
Basis: Fox News paid $45M+ across five settlements to silence O'Reilly sexual harassment victims; $20M to silence Gretchen Carlson; NDA-backed culture that ran for 13+ years
Total sentence
35,065–105,193 years
That is
449.6–1,348.6 life sentences
(using 78 years as one life)
At $1 million per day
Rupert Murdoch's fortune would last 5,202 years
66.7 lifetimes of luxury — before running out.
These are moral charges, not legal ones. The actual legal system has not — and will not — bring them.
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