Why isn’t James Murdoch protesting “far-right firebrand” Elon Musk?

Four years ago James Murdoch quit Fox "due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company's news outlets," but the Tesla director has been silent on his friend Musk.

Photo by Larissa Avononmadegbe on Unsplash

James Murdoch and his wife Kathryn are in the top 50 of all political donors in the US. They contributed $6.2 million to the Democrats, according to the latest Open Secrets data and they have made calling for a less partisan America one of their core missions investing millions in journalism projects.  James Murdoch however has been publicly silent on one of the most outspoken proponents of right-wing politics: Not Fox News, Elon Musk. 

Musk is set to interview former President Trump tonight on X after endorsing him for the White House.

Musk has the platform’s biggest account with 193.8 million followers - his misleading election claims have accrued 1.2 billion views, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate.  Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center told NBC News: “What Musk is doing is creating a sort of Colosseum-style spectacle of encouraging, amplifying and himself spreading disinformation.”

Musk has in recent weeks brawled with UK prime minister Keir Starmer after posting that “civil war is inevitable,” in the wake of riots that were sparked by the murder of three little girls in the North West of England. A former VP at Twitter suggested the UK ought to issue Elon Musk an arrest warrant if it views Musk as inciting violence. 

The Washington Post dubbed Musk a “far-right firebrand,” and reported Monday that before Musk bought X, formerly Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022, his posts were largely about his companies, now a high proportion of his missives are about politics. 

Back in 2017, James Murdoch felt so strongly about the violence in Charlottesville and President Trump’s response to it that he shared a memo with colleagues, “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.” James Murdoch donated to the Anti-Defamation League in the wake of events.

Last year. Musk one of the world’s richest men worth $228 billion, according to Bloomberg, was slammed for agreeing with a post viewed as antisemitic. That controversy prompted Disney, NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. Discovery to pause their ad campaigns. (In a rare act of contrition Musk later apologized at the New York Times Dealbook conference.) Still, the X platform has failed to take action against pro-Nazi accounts, according to an April investigation by NBC News.

Musk, never far from embroglios, also sued a group of advertising associations who are trying to enforce guard rails on social media. The brand safety group GARM shut down in response.

So what does all this have to do with James Murdoch?  His ties with Elon Musk run deep. According to Walter Isaacson’s book about the Tesla founder, James and his sister Elisabeth Murdoch vacationed in Spain with Musk and his kids.

James is an independent director on Musk’s Tesla board. He was once reported to be the lead candidate to become chairman of the company. Tesla shareholders have in the past described James Murdoch as being too close with Musk to be sufficiently independent and last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren called for the SEC to investigate conflicts of interest on the Tesla board.

A few months ago, the New York Times ran an article with a photo of Kathryn Murdoch and Elon Musk laughing together at the premiere of a documentary she executive produced.  James Murdoch’s spokeswoman Juleanna Glover also has at times acted as a communications advisor for Musk. 

All this will surely be grist for the mill as Murdoch family lawyers figure out the terms of their family trust which will come into play after their father Rupert Murdoch is no longer around. Fox and the Murdoch newspapers, which James so despises created his multi-billion dollar fortune.

James Murdoch is likely the “troublesome beneficiary” in the sealed documents about the trust obtained by the New York Times, If he wants to make the case to the judge overseeing the case that he objects to the editorial direction of Fox News, one might wonder about why he’s so quiet on Musk’s politics?

The Murdoch couple have invested $100 million in their foundation Quadrivium to support, “natural resources, science, civic life, childhood health and equal opportunity.” They also invested in a host of journalism initiatives: a new climate reporting hub at AP; The Bulwark, a newsletter that describes itself as having no partisan loyalties; a science news website SciLine; the American Journalism Project and the 19th which covers gender politics and policy.  

James Murdoch is to be commended for spending his fortune to correct whatever ills he sees in society through his foundation. He was a good steward at Fox when it came to thinking about waste and sustainability and he has rightly spoken out on climate change. He quit Fox after disagreements about its editorial direction and now wants to have a say again in its future.

We are all allowed friends who have different political views but Elon Musk is a billionaire oligarch with the power to incite violence and hate all over the world. Surely James could use his voice, as well as his money, to counter it. If he does not have influence at Fox, perhaps he could start with X.

*I was a media reporter at The New York Post between 2010-2016. I am currently writing a biography of Rupert Murdoch for Hachette’s Grand Central Publishing.

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