Rupert Murdoch has revealed that he has never watched Succession, the HBO hit loosely based on his life as the patriarch of an unruly billionaire family and head of the rightwing media empire that is now under growing pressure due to a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News.
Filings in the lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems included candid admissions from Murdoch, 92, and those who work for him, showing how senior Fox News figures did not believe Donald Trump lied about electoral fraud in his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, but did not stop broadcasting them for fear of losing viewers to rightwing rivals.
But, as reported by Semafor, filings in the suit revealed an unredacted email address used by Murdoch himself.
Max Tani, a Semafor media reporter, wrote to the media mogul asking about his TV viewing habits.
Tani wrote Hey Rupert. I wanted to know if you plan to watch the final season of Succession when it airs later this month, and what you think of the show. Tani replied that it was an interesting show. How do you think Elon Musk is doing Twitter? Murdoch wrote. Tani said that the Tesla and SpaceX mogul's job in charge of Twitter seems challenging, since he bought it last year and has since been engulfed in controversy. Then Tani chanced his arm, addressing another controversy that engulfs Fox as rightwing host Tucker Carlson broadcasts videos of the January 6 insurrection, trying to portray it as a largely peaceful protest.
I am curious: Do you agree with Tucker's recent 1 6 coverage portraying the 1 6 rioters as peaceful and orderly? There were nine deaths linked to the riot, which Trump incited in an attempt to stay in power. More than a thousand people have been arrested, hundreds charged, and many others have been convicted of seditious conspiracy. McCarthy's decision to give the footage to Carlson provoked outrage.
Carlson's private messages have been revealed in the Dominion suit, among them a text in which he said he hates Trump.
Tani asked Murdoch: Another one for you: Have you been getting more inquiries over the last week since this email address was included in the Dominion suit?