◼ 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: ~$23 billion (Forbes 2025, rank 87).

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.

7documented
acts

Criminal — illegal phone hacking· 2006–2014Convicted

News of the World editors convicted for hacking phones of nearly 4,000 named targets — including a murdered child

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. Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire's files named nearly 4,000 individuals; the Metropolitan Police later disclosed approximately 5,500 total potential targets. Former News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman was convicted in 2007. Former editor Andy Coulson was convicted in 2014. The most documented victim: Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old who was missing and later found murdered. Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old paper in 2011 within days of the Dowler revelation, not because anyone in management accepted accountability but to limit the political and financial exposure.

Milly Dowler was abducted March 21, 2002. News of the World reporters accessed her voicemail while she was missing and deleted messages to make room for new ones — giving her parents false hope she was still alive.
The hacking extended to families of victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings (51 dead) and to relatives of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Glenn Mulcaire's seized files contained nearly 4,000 names and 11,000 pages of handwritten notes. The Metropolitan Police later disclosed approximately 5,500 total potential targets, with over 100 arrests and 26 formally charged.
Andy Coulson — who had become Prime Minister David Cameron's personal communications director after leaving News of the World — was convicted in June 2014 of conspiracy to intercept voicemails, sentenced to 18 months.
Murdoch testified before Parliament. The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee concluded he "exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies." Murdoch said News of the World represented "just 1 percent" of his 53,000-employee operation. He was never personally criminally charged.
Counter-note: The parliamentary committee's "not a fit person" finding (see below) passed on a 5-4 party-line vote, with Conservative members filing a dissenting report. The finding carries no legal force.

Source: Wikipedia — News International phone hacking scandal

Financial settlement — £1.2 billion+ paid by subsidiary· 2011–2025Settled

News Group Newspapers paid more than £1.2 billion to settle over 1,300 hacking claims — a parliamentary committee found Murdoch "not a fit person"

The financial fallout from the phone hacking scandal at News Group Newspapers (NGN) — Murdoch's British newspaper subsidiary — exceeded £1.2 billion across more than 1,300 civil settlements. The money was paid by the subsidiary, not personally by Murdoch; settlements carried no admission of guilt. The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee found Murdoch was "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company" — a finding that passed 5-4 on a party-line vote, with Conservative members dissenting. It carries no legal force. In January 2025, NGN settled with Prince Harry over unlawful intrusions spanning 1996–2011.

Wikipedia (citing the Guardian, 2025) confirms NGN's cumulative losses from the phone hacking legal cases exceed £1.2 billion. Earlier reports cited "over £1 billion." Settlements were civil and carried no admission of wrongdoing.
More than 1,300 individual claims settled, ranging from public figures to ordinary citizens whose phones were illegally accessed without their knowledge.
The parliamentary committee finding — "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company" — passed 5-4, with Conservative members filing a minority report rejecting the conclusion. The finding is political, not judicial.
Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister Tony Blair's communications director Alastair Campbell, and numerous other public figures alleged their phones were hacked.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, settled in January 2025 after a trial was about to begin over hacking at News Group Newspapers properties during 1996–2011.

Source: Wikipedia — News International phone hacking scandal

Defamation — largest US media defamation settlement in history· 2020–2023Settled

Fox News paid $787.5M to Dominion Voting Systems for broadcasting election lies Murdoch privately knew were false — no admission of liability

After the 2020 US presidential election, Fox News broadcast a sustained campaign of lies claiming that Dominion Voting Systems — an election technology company — had manipulated vote counts to defeat Donald Trump. Internal discovery documents revealed that Murdoch and senior Fox executives privately knew these claims were false. Murdoch privately called Trump's fraud claims "really crazy stuff" and acknowledged under oath that Fox hosts had endorsed claims they personally knew to be untrue. Fox continued broadcasting the false claims anyway, fearing viewer defection to right-wing competitors Newsmax and OAN. In April 2023, Fox settled with Dominion for $787.5 million — the largest publicly known media defamation settlement in American history — without admitting liability.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled on March 31, 2023, that it was "crystal clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true." Fox settled weeks later.
Murdoch's own deposition: He acknowledged that Fox hosts had "endorsed" election fraud claims they personally knew to be false. He also privately told aides Trump's claims were "really crazy stuff, damaging everybody."
Tucker Carlson texted Laura Ingraham: "Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It's insane." Sean Hannity: "I did not believe it for one second." Both continued broadcasting the claims.
Fox settled for $787.5 million — Dominion had sought $1.6 billion. The settlement statement avoided any admission of liability: Fox "acknowledges the Court's rulings finding certain claims about Dominion to be false." No apology was required.
Counter-note: Murdoch's private "crazy stuff" skepticism of the election lies paradoxically helps his personal defense — his record shows he did not personally believe the claims he permitted to air. Fox's defense framing attributes the broadcast decisions to institutional fear of viewer defection, not personal direction from Murdoch.
Smartmatic, another voting technology company, has an active $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News. In January 2025, a New York appellate court rejected Fox's attempt to have the case dismissed. The suit remains pending and unresolved — no finding of wrongdoing has been made.

Source: Wikipedia — Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network

Sexual harassment — culture of predation, $45M+ in settlements· 2004–2017Settled

Fox News paid $45M+ across settlements for Ailes and O'Reilly harassment — Murdoch delayed Ailes removal for the Republican National Convention

Roger Ailes, Fox News chairman and CEO since 1996 — the architect of the network Murdoch built — was forced to resign in July 2016 after Gretchen Carlson sued him for sexual harassment and more than a dozen women came forward. Murdoch, along with his sons James and Lachlan, reviewed preliminary findings and concluded Ailes had to leave. James Murdoch wanted immediate action. Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch preferred to wait until after the Republican National Convention — approximately 15 days. Ailes resigned July 21, 2016 with a $40 million exit package. Fox separately paid Carlson $20 million. Fox also retained anchor Bill O'Reilly for years despite paying $13 million across five sexual harassment settlements, then renewed his contract with knowledge of a $32 million additional settlement before firing him in April 2017 after advertiser backlash.

Gretchen Carlson filed her lawsuit against Ailes on July 6, 2016. The Republican National Convention ran July 18–21. Ailes formally resigned July 21 — Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch's preferred timeline was tied to the RNC window, not a months-long cover-up. James Murdoch had pushed for faster action.
Carlson settled with 21st Century Fox for $20 million, announced September 6, 2016. Fox issued a public apology to Carlson. Ailes received approximately $40 million in exit compensation.
Megyn Kelly, at the time Fox's marquee anchor, disclosed to Fox investigators that Ailes had made unwanted sexual advances toward her.
O'Reilly had settled five prior sexual harassment claims totaling approximately $13 million before 2017. The New York Times investigation (April 1, 2017) revealed that Fox had renewed O'Reilly's contract while aware of a separate $32 million settlement with Lis Wiehl — the largest individual payout.
O'Reilly publicly and explicitly denied all wrongdoing. Fox's contract renewal defense rests on the argument that the full scope of the Wiehl settlement was not fully disclosed to all relevant decision-makers — Wikipedia describes the Murdoch family's pre-knowledge as "implied institutional awareness," not confirmed direct knowledge.
O'Reilly was terminated in April 2017 after the NYT investigation triggered advertiser withdrawals. Combined Fox News sexual harassment settlements across the Ailes and O'Reilly era: estimated at more than $90 million.

Source: Wikipedia — Roger Ailes; Wikipedia — Gretchen Carlson; Wikipedia — Bill O'Reilly (political commentator)

Regulatory manipulation — renounced citizenship to circumvent broadcast law· 1985–presentDocumented

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

Documented harm — amplifying insurrection while privately knowing better· 2021Documented

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."

Source: NPR — "The texts Fox hosts sent during the Jan. 6 riot don't match how Fox covered it on air," December 2021

Documented harm — climate science disinformation in Australian News Corp outlets· 2019–presentDocumented

James Murdoch resigned from the News Corp board over the Australian outlets' climate denial — his own son named it publicly

In July 2020, Rupert Murdoch's son James resigned from the News Corp board, stating "disagreements over certain editorial content." James subsequently confirmed the disagreement centered on News Corp's Australian newspapers — including The Australian and Sky News Australia — and their coverage of the 2019–2020 Australian bushfire season, which scientists directly linked to climate change. The papers spent that fire season questioning the climate connection. James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn donated $100 million to climate advocacy through their Quadrivium Foundation after resigning. The resignation was from the News Corp board specifically — the entity overseeing Australian newspapers — not from Fox Corporation, which is a separately listed company.

James Murdoch resigned from the News Corp board in July 2020, stating "disagreements over certain editorial content." Wikipedia (James Murdoch article) confirms the climate-denial framing: he specifically criticized "ongoing denial of the role of climate change" in Australian outlets during the 2019–20 bushfire season.
The scope of the resignation matters: News Corp (Australian newspapers, News UK) and Fox Corporation are separately listed companies. James's complaint targeted News Corp's Australian outlets — Sky News Australia, The Australian, the Herald Sun — not Fox News in the United States.
A 2019 peer-reviewed study in Environmental Research Letters found that 86% of Fox News climate change discussions contained at least some misleading content. That finding applies to the US television network.
Rupert Murdoch has made public statements at various points acknowledging climate science. His Australian newspapers' editorial posture during the 2019–20 bushfires represented a documented divergence — serious enough that a board member of 13 years and his own son resigned over it.
The Guardian's 2022 analysis found that Sky News Australia broadcast dozens of climate denial segments in a single six-month period.

Source: Wikipedia — James Murdoch; Environmental Research Letters (2019)

◼ List of charges

×5500 counts

Illegal Surveillance of Private Citizens

5 – 15 years per count = 27500–82500 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 nearly 4,000 named targets (Metropolitan Police: ~5,500 total) including murder victim Milly Dowler; editor Andy Coulson convicted 2014; Murdoch's parliamentary "wilful blindness" finding; £1.2B+ in NGN settlements (1,300+ complainants). Murdoch not personally charged.