CEO of Fox blasts Trump
James Murdoch chides the president over his response to hate groups’ violent rally.
James Murdoch chides the president over his response to hate groups’ violent rally in Virginia.
James Murdoch, chief executive of Fox News’ parent company, became the latest corporate leader to blast President Trump over his response to the recent racially charged attack in Charlottesville, Va.
“[W]hat we watched this last week in Charlottesville and the reaction to it by the president of the United States concern all of us as Americans and free people,” Murdoch wrote in an letter to friends. “These events remind us all why vigilance against hate and bigotry is an eternal obligation — a necessary discipline for the preservation of our way of life and our ideals.”
Murdoch’s letter, sent out Thursday night, was noteworthy because of his company’s ownership of conservative-leaning Fox News Channel, one of Trump’s favorite news sources.
Fox News has been a staunch defender of Trump’s presidency. In addition, Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch’s 86-yearold father and the company’s founder, has become an informal advisor to the president.
“I can’t even believe I have to write this: standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis. Or Klansmen, or terrorists. Democrats, Republicans, and others must all agree on this, and it compromises nothing for them to do so,” Murdoch wrote.
His missive comes in the wake of several other CEOs quitting Trump’s business councils and publicly admonishing him for not taking a tougher stand against extremism.
Trump was widely criticized for blaming “both sides” in the deadly violence that followed a Friday night march in which some white nationalists chanted antiJewish statements. Murdoch said that he and his wife, Kathryn, had made a $1-million donation to the Anti-Defamation League.
Resignations from Trump’s business councils began Monday and snowballed until Trump said he was disbanding the manufacturing and economic advisory councils Wednesday.
Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. and one of corporate America’s leading black executives, was the first to quit Monday.
“America’s leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal,” Frazier said. “As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism.”
Management and brand experts said the business leaders were trying to distance themselves and their companies from Trump.
“There’s not enough spin in the world to justify [Trump’s] position on this,” Marlene Towns, a professor at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, told The Times on Wednesday. “Generally, it’s a bad idea to align your brand with the KKK and white nationalists,” she added.