SUN VALLEY, ID - JULY 13: (L to R) Rupert Murdoch, executive chairman of News Corp and chairman of Fox News, and Lachlan Murdoch, co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, walk together as they arrive on the third day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 13, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every July, some of the world's most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, technology and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive weeklong conference. (Photo: Getty)
Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox Corporation and son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, filed a defamation suit against Australian news organization Crikey.
Murdoch was unhappy with a June 29 op-ed published by the organization titled, “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.” The article analyzed the possible role Trump and his allies played in inciting the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack and hinted at a connection between Trump allies and Fox News. The article mentioned the Murdoch name twice.
After the article’s publication, Murdoch went straight to Crikey, accusing them of including “scandalous allegations of criminal conduct and conspiracy” that insinuated “highly defamatory and false imputations about him.”
Initially, Crikey agreed to take down the article and refrain from republishing it, but Murdoch rejected it, arguing that the apology was disingenuous.
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“We invited Lachlan Murdoch to sue us and now he has,” Crikey managing editor Peter Fray wrote in a Tuesday night statement. “And we say bring it on.”
“We stand by our story because we believe we are dealing with a matter of press freedom and public interest,” he added.
Crikey chairman Eric Beecher and Fray also published an open letter to Murdoch in the New York Times.
“Crikey is an independent Australian news website, launched in 2000. covering politics, media and public issues,” it read. “We at Crikey strongly support freedom of opinion and public interest journalism.”
The letter then announced that the publication would release all communications between Crikey and Murdoch to allow the public to decide which side to take.
So far, a court date has not be set.
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