After years of anonymous digs and backstage maneuverings, in January 2010, Freud, a typical jet-setting liberal, went on record to the New York Times, expressing his disdain for Ailes and Fox.
OK, everyone's entitled to his opinion. But it seems as if Freud has been willing to do more than bad-mouth the single most profitable portion of the News Corporation--he has been willing to work with George Soros' notorious tool, David Brock, to damage Fox and News Corp. As the Cable Gamer noted in an October 29, 2010 posting, Freud--or someone who wears Freud's clothes--was conspiring with Brock, trying to muster a boycott of Fox. Who does that help?
At the time, The Cable Gamer just assumed that Freud was continuing his vendetta against Fox. But more recently, TCG has begun to think that maybe Freud's gripe was with the News Corp. itself, not just Fox. TCG antennae were raised ove the huge flap raised in the British media about the News Corp.'s attempted purchase of the remaining part of B Sky B. It's been quite a mess: Here's a typically nasty piece from the lefty Guardian. This kind of negative publicity, of course, could cost the News Corp. billions.
Meanwhile, the Guardian, we might note, is exactly the sort of newspaper that Freud would work well with. Freud's own p.r. business might be faltering, but even his enemies concede that he knows how to connive and conspire with the best of them. And so TCG now wonders whether or not Freud's war with Ailes is really a war with the News Corp. itself.
Specifically is Freud at war with Rupert's son, James Murdoch, who seems to be most in line to succeed his father at the helm of the company? But why would Freud lash out a member of the family, and the family holdings? Possible answer: human nature, in all its perverse green-eyed variations of jealousy and intrigue. Indeed, if this is what Freud is up to, it wouldn't be the first time that an in-law has decided that he doesn't like his in-laws. And so while in the short run, Freud might be thinking, his maneuverings will hurt his own wealth (which he has access to through his wife), perhaps in some complicated way, this effort will help accelerate the division of the company among Rupert's business-minded children, with Elisabeth getting her share--in which Freud would share. That's the way dynasties sometimes play out.
And since James Murdoch is known to be fond of Ailes, it's all the sweeter for Freud to bash James.
So now, when TCG sees article such as this, she thinks to herself that the real story is not about issues, if any, between the Murdoch children and Ailes. No, the real fight is between Freud and James. And between Freud and the News Corp., and its shareholders and stakeholders, including us Fox Fans.
And so young James Murdoch is thus forced to defend not only himself, but his company, and his father's legacy.
It's a fight alright--that's James Murdoch and Freud, pictured in the graphic above.
