News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch asked Fox News Chairman and CEO Roger Ailes to stop giving Donald Trump's presidential campaign so much coverage – but Ailes has defied him, according to Gabriel Sherman writing today on
New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer blog.
Murdoch tweeted in recent days that Trump is "wrong" saying that most illegal immigrants are criminals and that he is "embarrassing" his friends and the whole country:
Since then, Trump sparked new controversy by saying over the weekend that Arizona Sen. John McCain is not a war hero, then giving out South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's cellphone number after Graham defended McCain and called Trump a "jackass."
The Wall Street Journal, which like Fox News is owned by Murdoch, wrote an editorial Sunday criticizing unnamed conservative news sites for being what the Journal called Trump "apologists," but did not mention Fox News. On the same day, another Murdoch newspaper, the New York Post, ran a cover of Trump being circled by a shark with the headline "DON VOYAGE."
Despite media complaints Fox is backing Trump, almost all of the Fox hosts and regular commentators have sharply criticized Trump for his comments about Mexicans and John McCain's war service.
"This week, Ailes told his senior executives during a meeting that Murdoch recently called him and asked if Fox could 'back off the Trump coverage,'" Sherman quoted a source.
"Ailes is said to have boasted to his executives that he told Murdoch he was covering Trump 'the way he wanted to.' The implication was that he wasn't going to budge."
"The Five" co-host Eric Bolling reportedly has been told to defend Trump on air, and on Wednesday's "Fox & Friends," co-host Steve Doocy said "someone told me yesterday Donald Trump is like a Navy SEAL."
The Journal editorial is seen inside Fox News as a message to Ailes, Sherman writes, but added that an insider said, "Roger claims not to care."
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