Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
shakedown.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A community for live music fans with roots in the jam scene. Shakedown Social is run by a team of volunteers (led by @clifff and @sethadam1) and funded by donations.

Administered by:

Server stats:

290
active users

shakedown.social: AboutStatusProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.4

#rupert

0 posts0 participants0 posts today
Public
Chuck Darwin

Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage and calls for new leader of Reform

"President" Musk has called for Nigel Farage to be replaced as Reform UK leader
hours after Farage described the billionaire businessman as “a hero”,
in what is likely to be a preview of how a chaotic Donald Trump could affect British politics.

Farage, who is also the de facto owner of Reform, “doesn’t have what it takes”,
Musk said on X, the social media platform he owns, less than three weeks after the pair held seemingly warm talks at Trump’s Florida home.
💥“The Reform party needs a new leader,” he wrote.

Musk, 53, who has sent a mass of largely misleading posts in recent days about a series of aspects of UK politics, appeared to endorse #Rupert #Lowe, the Great Yarmouth MP, as a possible replacement, saying statements he had read from Lowe “make a lot of sense”.

Later, Lowe backed Farage, posting on X:
“Nigel is leader of Reform. He made Brexit happen, and for that I will always be grateful.
“I look forward to working with Nigel and the entire team to continue to hold this incompetent Labour party to account, democratise our own party, win the next election and form a Reform government.”

The sudden change of heart from Musk is highly embarrassing for Farage,
who had just spent much of a TV interview earlier on Sunday refusing to condemn the businessman for inflammatory comments about Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips,
including calling the latter a “rape genocide apologist”.

Farage, 60, indicated Musk’s statement could be connected to a disagreement about #Tommy #Robinson,
the jailed far-right anti-Islam agitator whom Musk has characterised as a political prisoner,
but whom Farage condemns.

“Well, this is a surprise!” Farage wrote on X after Musk’s tweet.
“Elon is a remarkable individual but on this I am afraid I disagree.
My view remains that Tommy Robinson is not right for Reform and I never sell out my principles.”

theguardian.com/politics/2025/

The Guardian · Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage and calls for new leader of ReformBy Peter Walker
Public
IFR (she/her)

Photo 1 was completed July 2021 a week before The Boy was born. They named the bear #Rupert and it went everywhere with him. He still has it here.

Photo 2 was completed today, ready for the birth of my granddaughter. They have named this bear #Ruth.

I’m a bit disappointed with myself for conforming to gender colour norms, I’ll be honest. But also, all newborn babies look like grumpy old men don’t they, so at least the pink may counter that slightly!

A crocheted teddy bear comforter with a beige head, brown ears, and arms, featuring a striped body in beige and brown tones, lying on a wooden surface.
A pink and white crochet bear soft toy with a blanket body, displayed on a wooden surface.
#crochet#handmade#OrganicCotton
Public *
Chuck Darwin

A Nevada commissioner ruled resoundingly against #Rupert #Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s #trust
-- to consolidate his eldest son #Lachlan’s control of his media empire
-- and lock in Fox News’s right-wing editorial slant, according to a sealed court document obtained by The New York Times.

The commissioner, Edmund J. Gorman Jr., concluded in a decision filed on Saturday that the father and son, who is the head of Fox News and News Corp.,
had acted in “bad faith” in their effort to amend the irrevocable trust,
which divides control of the company equally among Mr. Murdoch’s four oldest children
— Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence
— after his death.

The ruling was at times scathing.

At one point in his 96-page opinion, Mr. Gorman characterizes the plan to change the trust as a
“carefully crafted charade”
to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire
“regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust.

The battle over the family trust is not about money
— Mr. Murdoch is not seeking to diminish any of his children’s financial stakes in the company
— but rather about future control of the world’s most powerful conservative media empire,
which includes Fox News,
The Wall Street Journal,
The New York Post and major newspapers and television outlets in Australia and Britain.

James and Elisabeth are both known to have less-conservative political views than their father or brother.

If Mr. Murdoch fails to lock in Lachlan’s leadership of the company,
he will be unable to ensure that Fox News will remain a right-wing news outlet after his death,
putting in jeopardy the legacy of the conservative empire he had spent his life building.

In seeking to consolidate Lachlan’s control over this empire,
Mr. Murdoch has argued that maintaining the political bent of his outlets
— and stripping the voting power of three of his children
— is in the financial interest of all his beneficiaries.
nytimes.com/2024/12/09/busines

The New York Times · Rupert Murdoch Fails in Bid to Change Family TrustBy Jonathan Mahler
Continued thread
Public *
Chuck Darwin

(3/3)

As the Murdoch #succession battle plays out in a US court,
a separate fight is brewing over control of #News #Corp

Australian and US investment groups take aim at #dual #voting #rights system that
⚠️gives family a dominant voice over how empire is run

Australian pension funds and governance groups have criticised the share voting powers that allow Rupert Murdoch to control News Corp,
-- as a secret legal case over the future control of the company is heard in the US state of Nevada.

The push to untangle News Corp’s structure,
which allocates different voting rights according to share type,
⭐️is being driven by agitators trying to loosen the billionaire’s grip over the media empire
🔸and stop that influence being passed to his heirs.

Murdoch has been in Nevada for hearings this week,
after seeking to 🔹change the terms of a family trust to ensure that his eldest son,
Lachlan, remains in charge of the company’s stack of newspapers and television networks, including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News.

The proceedings prompted the US hedge fund Starboard Value to propose a resolution to eliminate News Corp’s dual class share structure,
-- arguing that the political disagreement in the family
“could be paralyzing to the strategic direction” of News Corp,
according to The New York Times.

Dual structures are commonly used by company founders to retain control of a business even when they have a minority shareholding,
with Murdoch holding 40% of voting rights via a 14% shareholding.

Debby Blakey, the chief executive of the A$86bn Hesta superannuation fund, told Guardian Australia that
“one share, one vote” was fundamental to good corporate governance.

She said the fund’s “engagement, voting and advocacy activities continue to reflect this belief”.

“Hesta remains committed to engaging with companies and using our shareholder votes to drive change that helps create long-term investment value for our members,” Blakey told Guardian Australia.

The Australian Council of Superannuation Investors said it also supported a “one share, one vote” capital structure.

“Voting is a fundamental shareholder right and one of the key ways for shareholders to ensure accountability at listed companies,” ACSI said.

#Rupert#Murdoch#class
Continued thread
Public *
Chuck Darwin

(2/3)

For example, #Rupert #Murdoch owns 17% of equity in the media empire 👉 and 39% of the voting power.

“The fight for control of the Murdoch empire is only magnified by the #dual #class structure,” says Charles Elson, a leading authority on US corporate governance issues.

“The idea is I am the smartest person in the world and I should run the company as its king.

Other shareholders can say we believe you. If that’s a condition of investing, so be it.”

❌But critics of unequal dual-class voting say the structure weakens executive accountability.

“That’s the problem – it basically destroys #accountability,” says Elson.

Passing that power on generationally, he adds, only makes it worse.

“How do you know the talent is genetic?
Simply because they’re the children doesn’t mean they have the same business acumen as the father
and it’s not how you pick the leader of a company or a country.”

The Murdoch biographer and antagonist #Michael #Wolff wrote recently that the late Fox News chair and CEO #Roger #Ailes told him that the Murdoch sons,
Lachlan and James,
“are both wannabe little kings”.

But that was before open warfare broke out.

“I think they both really believe they were put on earth to show up their father, rather than the reality,
which is that they would be mid-level media executives making a quarter million a year and grateful for it, without their old man.”

Earlier this month, the hedge fund #Starboard #Value sent a letter to shareholders of News Corp, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, calling for the company to eliminate its dual-class share structure.

In the letter, the Starboard CEO, #Jeffrey #Smith, argued:
“This transition of power from Rupert Murdoch to his children has allowed for complicated family dynamics to potentially impact the stability and strategic direction of News Corp.”

Four Murdoch children with voting rights, Smith added,
“could be paralyzing to the strategic direction”
and, more importantly:
“We are not sure why their perspectives should carry greater weight than the views of other shareholders.”

News Corp said it believed its dual-class capital structure
“promotes stability and has facilitated the successful implementation of News Corp’s transformational strategy and long-term outperformance for all News Corp stockholders”.

The outcome of the Nevada court battle will not immediately affect the family’s control of the Murdoch empire
but could in the fullness of time if Murdoch dies or becomes incapacitated.

“If the stock is split up and the family doesn’t get along, the company could face real challenges and it becomes a very bumpy road for the other investors who are not part of the drama.”

But as the caravan of Black SUVs ferried warring Murdochs in and out of court last week, there was at least one certainty, Elson says.

While Rupert Murdoch still lives, the company remains firmly under his thumb.

“Rupert Murdoch calls the shots and when he’s gone he really doesn’t have that worry any more. -- He’s done.”

Public *
Chuck Darwin

(1/3)

Murdoch family drama plays out in court with fate of Fox News at stake

If #Rupert #Murdoch, 93, prevails in his legal effort to change voting rights of the #family #trust
to ensure that his chosen successor and conservative-leaning eldest son, #Lachlan Murdoch, 53, runs the company after his death, little may change.

♦️The proceedings pit Murdoch, 93, and his chosen successor, Lachlan, against his three more liberal-leaning siblings, Prudence, Elizabeth and James,
over future control of Murdoch’s #Fox Corp and #News Corp through the family’s control of the global empire’s share structure via an irrevocable trust set up in 1999.

According to the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, Murdoch is arguing that
“shifting voting control of the trust to Lachlan should be allowed because it is in the best interest of all the beneficiaries, including his other children”.

⭐️But if the patriarch loses, the younger brother #James Murdoch, in concert with his sisters #Prudence and #Elizabeth, could force Fox News to move away from the conservative news alignments of their father and brother.

🧨That would be an earthquake in American politics.

➡️ No other media power in the US has the impact that Fox News has had in the last two decades.

It has become a driving force of American conservatism, feared for its power by both Republicans and Democrats.

And condemned by many for its conservative bias and numerous show hosts who have become darlings of the US right and powerful players on their own.

Figures such as Sean #Hannity are hugely powerful within the Maga world, while the former host Tucker #Carlson
– now exiled from the station where he rose to power
– has withered outside it and been largely unable to recreate the influence he had while broadcasting to Fox’s viewers.

Gaming out the different scenarios at stake in Reno is water cooler talk at Fox News’s midtown New York headquarters,
with TV hosts discussing a reposition of their own personal brands if liberal-leaning James wins
and opening back-channel communications with him if his father and rival brother prevail.

But despite their immense importance the legal arguments over the Murdoch Family Trust presented within the impenetrable walls of a 1960’s annex court extension in Reno last week are known only to the judge and court staff, Rupert Murdoch, his first and second set of children and an army of lawyers, including Trump’s attorney general William Barr.

“A family trust like the one at issue in this case … is essentially a private legal arrangement,”
the Washoe county probate commissioner Edmund J Gorman Jr, wrote in an 18-page recommendation before the parties convened.

❇️ James, Elisabeth and Prudence, want the trust to be maintained and oppose Murdoch’s proposed change giving Lachlan control because they would stand to lose voting power.

Yet while Lachlan’s politics are comfortably rightwing and match his father’s,
the opposing other siblings have a different world view.

James Murdoch even hosted Joe #Biden in his home for a fundraiser in 2022 and🔥 has endorsed #Kamala #Harris to beat Trump in 2024.

But it won’t be Fox politics under discussion so much in Reno.
Instead, much of that argument will be couched in an examination of US corporate governance conventions that allow for a family to control a business they do not majority own by a so-called #dual #class structure of shares
– in effect the family shares have more power than others.
theguardian.com/media/2024/sep

The Guardian · Murdoch family drama plays out in court with fate of Fox News at stakeBy Edward Helmore
Continued thread
Public *
Chuck Darwin

In addition to running Sinclair,
David Smith has used his vast wealth to support a variety of far-right causes.

The Baltimore Banner reports that
👉 since 2015, Smith, through his family foundation,
has donated large sums to "Young Americans for Liberty" ($581,000),
"Project Veritas" ($536,000),
"Turning Point USA"
($150,000), and "Moms for Liberty" ($121,000).

Meanwhile, News Corp’s cable news properties, Fox News and Fox Business, also helped launder the Wall Street Journal’s attacks on Biden into the news cycle.

According to transcript searches, the WSJ piece’s core claim
that Biden is “slipping”
was brought up at least 64 times on air on Fox News and Fox Business from when the article was published until yesterday afternoon.

Online, the WSJ piece has been the focus of at least 15 articles on Fox News’ website,
with many of them treating its dubious claims about Biden’s decline as a demonstrated fact.

#Boris#Epshteyn#Sinclair
Continued thread
Public
Chuck Darwin

A 2018 study published in the American Political Science Review
found that
👉stations purchased by Sinclair
increase "coverage of national politics at the expense of local politics"
👉 and undergo "a significant rightward shift in the ideological slant of coverage."

🌟Delivering right-wing attacks on Biden's mental fitness under the guise of "local news" is an extremely powerful tactic. 🌟

While many Americans are distrustful of the national media,
71% believe that local news is accurate,
including 78% of Democrats and 66% of Republicans.

This is not the first time Sinclair has exploited Americans' trust in local news to boost Republicans politically.

In 2016, the Trump campaign provided Sinclair stations with extensive access to Trump in exchange for friendly coverage that did not include fact-checking.

🔥"We are here to deliver your message," Smith told Trump 🔥in a 2016 meeting.

In 2017, Sinclair hired #Boris #Epshteyn, who previously served as a Trump advisor and surrogate, as its Chief Political Analyst.

👉Sinclair stations were 💥required 💥to run Epshteyn's political commentary.

"The American people demand change, and they demand action, and that’s exactly what they’ll get from this administration going forward," Epshteyn declared in one piece.

In 2018, 🔥anchors at Sinclair affiliates were forced to read a script warning viewers about "fake stories" being published by other media outlets "to push their own personal bias and agenda." 🔥

The argument mirrored then-president Donald Trump's criticism of the media.

#Sinclair#David#Smith
Continued thread
Public
Chuck Darwin

The Wall Street Journal piece was panned by independent media critics.

CNN's Oliver Darcy said the Wall Street Journal piece had "glaring problems."

In Poynter, Tom Jones wrote that it was not a "fairly reported story" because it relied exclusively on "quotes and opinions from those who don’t want to see Biden elected to a second term."

Nevertheless, ⭐️the Wall Street Journal piece was repackaged by Sinclair Broadcast Group and beamed into the homes of millions of Americans. ⭐️

#Sinclair, which is controlled by right-wing media mogul #David #Smith, owns or operates 185 local television stations across 86 markets.

Sinclair repackaged the Wall Street Journal story through its centralized news team, known as The National Desk.

The segment was then pushed to dozens of local news stations owned by Sinclair.

Local anchors introduced the piece by reading from a nearly identical script.

Again and again, the anchors say that the Wall Street Journal is "out with new reporting calling into question the mental fitness of President Joe Biden," adding that the issue "could be an election decider."

#Rupert#Murdoch#Lachlan
Public
Chuck Darwin

Two outlets controlled by right-wing media tycoons are working in tandem
to aggressively push specious claims about President Joe Biden's fitness for office. 

On June 4, the Wall Street Journal published a 3,000-word article questioning Biden's mental acuity.

The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp, the media conglomerate founded by right-wing billionaire #Rupert #Murdoch.
. (News Corp is now chaired by Rupert Murdoch's son, #Lachlan.)

The Wall Street Journal article,
headlined “Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Sipping,” boasts that it is based on "interviews with more than 45 people over several months."

👉But only one person is quoted on the record supporting the thesis of the piece: Former House Speaker #Kevin #McCarthy (R-CA).
“I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house,” McCarthy told the Wall Street Journal. “He’s not the same person.” 

🔥Relying on McCarthy as the lynchpin of the article is problematic. First, McCarthy is not a neutral observer. He is a partisan Republican interested in inflicting political damage on Biden.

Further, what McCarthy told the Wall Street Journal about Biden is directly contradicted by comments that McCarthy said previously
— both publicly and privately.

In the article, McCarthy criticizes Biden's performance in debt ceiling negotiations in 2023. But in March 2023, while these negotiations were underway, the New York Times reported that
"McCarthy has told allies that he has found Mr. Biden to be mentally sharp in meetings."

McCarthy made similar comments about Biden in public, praising Biden as "[v]ery professional, very smart" and "[v]ery tough at the same time."

In October, when McCarthy was ousted as House Speaker, Politico reported that McCarthy "mocked Biden’s age and mental acuity in public, while privately telling allies that he found the president sharp and substantive in their conversations."

publicnotice.co/p/sinclair-bid

Public Notice · Sinclair injects deceptive attacks on Biden's age into dozens of local broadcastsBy Aaron Rupar
Public *
Chuck Darwin

The media continues to discuss #Trump’s #criminal #indictments, and is — finally! — noticing that Trump is becoming less and less #coherent.
But why isn’t it reporting on something almost every lawmaker and journalist in official Washington knows
— that Trump is remarkably #stupid?
I don’t mean just run-of-the-mill stupid.
I mean extraordinarily, off-the-charts, #stupifyingly #stupid.

After all, he recently claimed that magnets don’t work in water, that the Civil War was unnecessary because it should have been “negotiated,” and that no one would know who Lincoln was if he hadn’t gone to war.

Still don’t believe Trump is stupid?

Consider the views of the people who worked most closely with him during his presidency.

Anyone remember when Secretary of State #Rex #Tillerson called Trump a “f—king #moron?”

Or when National Security Adviser #H.R. #McMaster called him a “#dope?”

And Treasury Secretary #Steve #Mnuchin, former White House Chief of Staff #Reince #Priebus, former White House Chief of Staff }John #Kelly, and even #Rupert #Murdoch all referred to Trump as an “#idiot?”
(Technically, Murdoch called him a “f—king idiot.”)

robertreich.substack.com/p/ser

Robert Reich · Seriously, again, how dumb is Trump?By Robert Reich
Public
Chuck Darwin

At last, some happy news. #Rupert #Murdoch is engaged – and for the second time in less than a year.

I know! Despite being 93 next Monday, he’s getting engaged even more frequently than serial sex killers serving life sentences.

Those betrothals, of course, tend to happen entirely by letter, but as far as we know, Murdoch’s latest love match is a real-world union.

His fiancee is Elena Zhukova, 67, a retired biologist who also previously served as mother-in-law to Roman Abramovich.

In the absence of an official engagement photo, just sub in that image from Alien 3 where the slavering alien corners Ripley in the infirmary.
And please remember – the Fox News chairman emeritus’s lifelong commitment to irreverent stories about people’s private lives means the above is precisely how he wants his latest chapter to be covered.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/

The Guardian · Congratulations, Rupert Murdoch! Let’s hope this love match lasts longer than TalkTVBy Marina Hyde
Replied in thread
Public
Ellie Kennard has moved

@GertrudeZane
No, never bred them. Our first cat was a Burmese and we bred her. And Siamese. I used to go to cat shows in London with an elderly lady who bred Cornish Rex and we both showed our cats. Once I got to know the Rex breed I knew that I wanted to have them. Their personality is so special. When we came back to Canada a local lady bred them and we got #Rupert , our first. He was amazing. Then Molly. When they died, we were without for 1.5 years. Now we have these 3. And love them.

Replied in thread
Public
Spocko

@TimKarr She can just make stuff up since she is not under oath. X isn't a public company now, so she can say what the major shareholders, Musk & the Saudis, want.

Private companies don't have to provide the same kind of data public ones do. But, neither do HUGE ones, like NEWSCORP. That's why I phrased my question to #Rupert #Murdoch like I did. After my question Reuters & the NYT found out over 300 brands wouldn't advertise on Beck's show following the #ColorOfChange campaign.

Public
Spocko

Now that #RupertMurdoch is leaving #NewsCorp & #Fox, do I need to start watching #Succession to see what happens next?
#TvSeries
Him leaving reminds me of the successful campaign with #ColorOfChange & #AngeloCarusone to get advertisers to leave the #GlennBeck show.
I asked #Rupert how long he was going to support the money losing show.
Beck was fired after this for lack of revenue after thia story.
RUPERT AND ME: I QUESTION THE NEWSCORP CEO ABOUT SUBSIDIZING GLENN BECK
shadowproof.com/2010/05/12/rup

ShadowproofRupert and Me: I question the NewsCorp CEO about Subsidizing Glenn Beck - ShadowproofLast week I called up Rupert Murdock and, in front of the entire industry analyst community and the media, I asked him how long he was going to subsidize the money-losing Glenn Beck show. He said that Fox wasn't subsidizing him. Beck has lost a minimum of 81 advertisers. All he has now are a few random ads, house ads and gold ads. Race baiting and suggestions of killing political leaders might be popular on the right, but it doesn't have to be profitable.
ExploreLive feeds
About