By Bob Gaydos
- Rupert is done with Donald.
The man who created the monster is out to kill it and he's doing it with the weapon he knows best -- the power of the press.
The most telling blows against Donald Trump in the ever-growing scandal over his failure to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, as repeatedly promised in Trump's campaign for president, have come from a most unlikely source: The dignified jewel in the somewhat tacky Murdoch Empire.
First, the Journal ran a story about Trump's highly suggestive (they share "secrets") birthday card to Epstein on his 50th birthday. Then came the report that Trump's Justice Department (Pam Bondi) had told him in May that his name was all over the Epstein files, which Bondi, of course, had subsequently said publicly did and then did not exist, creating the current furor about them.
This is the well-respected, conservative Wall Street Journal, not Fox-makes-it-up-and-we-love-you-Donald News, not the headline-happy New York Post, definitely not your typical Murdoch sensation-seeing tabloid. Trump even asked Murdoch not to run the story. Said it wasn't true.
It ran. Trump, typically, sued the Journal claiming defamation. He wants $10 billion. Murdoch said bring it on.
What's going on?
There are several schools of thought on this. One is that Murdoch, who made his fame and fortune by publishing often made-up stories about famous people in sensational tabloid papers, first in Australia and Britain before coming to the U.S., is looking for a last hurrah. The man is 94-years-old, his sons are taking over the business, but taking down a president could be quite a rush and addition to your obituary, even if the reports are actually true.
The willingness to take Trump on knowing a lawsuit is inevitable probably lies in the law itself. To prove defamation, Trump must not only demonstrate that the statement was false, defamatory, published to a third party, but also that the publisher acted with at least negligence or actual malice in publishing the information.
They knew it was false but ran it anyway. I don't see the Wall Street Journal's experienced lawyers allowing anything like that happening.
Which means the stories must be true and the Journal has proof, the best defense. The story is clearly also of public interest, as witness the reaction to them.
The irony, of course, is that, while other media empires -- ABC, CBS, The Washington Post -- have bowed to Trump threats to sue or to scuttle potential deals by paying him off and softening criticism of him -- Murdoch, who, as mentioned, built a fortune on lies, thus becomes the unlikely defender of the free press in America.
My hero.
It has been noted that, unlike years ago when Murdoch was helping build Trump's cult following by making stuff up on Fox News, Murdoch has no mega deals in the works at this time that Trump could threaten. That obviously only buttresses the courage to, well, what the heck, print the truth.
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