Democratic New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio torched News Corp. Sunday, blaming the right-leaning media conglomerate founded by Rupert Murdoch for stoking the fiery racial rhetoric that helped elect President Trump.
“There is no Donald Trump without News Corp., I firmly believe that. He never gets to the presidency because he would have never been elevated the way he was consistently for years and years,” De Blasio said during an interview with CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”
“I believe in a free strong media with diverse views,” he continued. “I’ll defend it with all I’ve got. But we have to be able to call out when a particular company has a corporate agenda, has a political agenda, and has very effectively changed the American discourse.”
De Blasio added there would be “less overt hate” and fewer appeals “to racial division” without News Corp. television networks or publications, specifically citing Fox News and the New York Post. “They don’t just dog whistle, they go a lot further than that,” he said. “They put race front and center, and they try to stir the most negative impulses in this country.”
[Opinion: Progressive Bill de Blasio will get a free pass on his attacks on media]
Without Rupert Murdoch and News Corp, “we would be a more unified country. There would be less overt hate,” NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio tells @brianstelter pic.twitter.com/fgIgZGxkHC
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) August 12, 2018
De Blasio’s comments provoked criticism from current and former News Corp. employees.
I did not feel that I was making New York City worse when covering him for the WSJ. https://t.co/gibFZuKqF8
— Josh Dawsey (@jdawsey1) August 12, 2018
Not sure I agree with you there Your Honor. Nor do the 1,300 men and women working their backsides off at @WSJ for our readers in America and beyond. https://t.co/2R65L0YtEx
— Daniel Nasaw (@danielnasaw) August 12, 2018
De Blasio’s remarks follows statements he made to the Guardian last week charging News Corp. with creating a less “unified country.”
