September 2, 2023
We know the Murdochs do not like Trump or the MAGA movement. This antipathy is so visceral they were willing to fire their leading show host, Tucker Carlson, when he began revealing too many details regarding the J6 ersatz insurrection narrative. If you owned a TV network, the Wall Street Journal — largest newspaper in the country, and the NY Post, how could you use these vehicles to undermine Trump? One way would be to host the first GOP debate and have your two most anti-Trump talking heads act as moderators, Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier. Another way would be to identify an alternative GOP presidential candidate, and provide him unlimited free press to indulge himself on your editorial pages.
The hatred of Trump by the Murdochs is so intense that they willingly endured the Bud Light treatment after firing Carlson. Or maybe they were just too clueless it was about to happen.
Fox News Ratings Fall Off a Cliff After Tucker Carlson's Departure
Fox News' ratings for primetime slots among key demographics of cable television viewers have declined sharply since the departure of Tucker Carlson, with the latest figures showing rival MSNBC overtaking the conservative juggernaut. Cable news ratings show that in the two weeks since the host was fired, figures for Carlson's former spot have dropped by around 50 percent, while the network's audience among 25- to 54-year-olds had shrunk by two thirds.
Vivek Ramaswamy made his campaign announcement in late February, on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. The editors have granted him at least eight guest editorial opinion slots, as of this writing. We know this because Ramaswamy features these on his LinkedIn profile. [see below at bottom] We don’t know what is in them, or the contents of his campaign announcement, because the Murdochs charge dearly for that privilege. $49.99 (plus tax) every 4 weeks after their introductory deal ends. This works out to $649.87/year. Plus tax. Not exactly MAGA friendly pricing.
Does this not strike you as odd? If a registered independent voter — intending to out-Trump the leading GOP contender by promising to take the MAGA revolution even further than Trump could — sought to reach the MAGA base, why would he choose to canoodle with the anti-Trump, anti-MAGA Murdochs and their elite publication? Would he choose to place his campaign announcement behind an elite paywall, or use some other, open platform?
There is obviously a romantic attraction between the two parties. We know what benefit the Murdochs derive from this relationship — they get an anti-Trump candidate. We know what Ramaswamy gets — free press. The paper’s 3,749,000 subscribers (June 2022) means its opinion pages are penthouse level real estate. Perhaps Ramaswamy might also thereby attract deep-pocket donors of the sort who subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. But is there a cost to Ramaswamy for this privilege? Put another way, was there a cost to the Murdochs for canning Carlson? Or to Bud Light for their choices?
The NY Post’s editorial section was turned over to Ramaswamy six days prior to the August GOP primary debate, an in-kind contribution which does not appear on the books. Working in concert with Fox “News” and the Wall Street Journal, the Murdoch outlets have granted Ramaswamy millions in free PR.
It is obvious that without the Murdoch tailwind, Ramaswamy’s polling would be far lower. Much of the buzz surrounding him comes from the top down, astroturf not grassroots. Fox “News” polls consistently show him with far more support than objective polls reveal. Fake news requires fake polls to support fake narratives regarding fake candidates. How can Fox “News” polling from September 9-12 show Ramaswamy at 11% as the choice of GOP primary voters, while FiveThirtyEight’s average of multiple polls shows him at 7.3% Note how the 2% difference Fox “News” shows between DeSantis and Ramaswamy expands to 7% in the Real World.
Ramaswamy may have other objectives than a political future. He obviously is not going to be the Republican nominee. As more people begin to clue into his act, and realize he is a member of the globalist elite class, while playing a renegade on TV, it becomes increasingly clear why he selected the Wall Street Journal as his platform for announcing his candidacy, rather than the low-brow NY Post.
His true base, those he identifies with and who he courts in his past and future corporate endeavors, are the Wall Street Journal readership demographic. It is probably no more complicated than that. Merchandising.
To be continued . . .
LEARN MORE:
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up — Part 1: Red flags
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up — Part 2: Have you ever wanted to be a billionaire? 11 easy steps to immense wealth.
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up — Part 2.1: Vivek responds to Kevin's allegations.
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up — Part 2.2: 2015 Happy Talk vs. 2023 Sad Talk
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up — Part 3: Levin & Hannity August interviews
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up — Part 4: Vivek vs. Irwin; Respecting the least among us. A classy guy.
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up — Part 5: The Murdoch connection; friends in high places
Will the Real Vivek Please Stand Up— Part 6: Numbers which don't add up
Rama Swamyisms — Impressing with empty rhetoric