July 30, 2020--Follow the Sex

When prosecutors or investigative reporters are closing in on a subject, it is often said, "Follow the Money." Al Capone comes to mind.

This is certainly true about Donald Trump. District attorneys in New York, among other things, are looking into the finances of the Trump Foundation while others were given the go ahead recently by the Supreme Court to have access to eight years of his tax returns.

Also, while seeking explanations for Tump's cozy relationship with Vladimir Putin, it is speculated that it's all about money, Trump's obsession with building a Trump Tower in Red Square in Moscow.

While all of this and more are likely true, there may also be other powerful forces at work. Sex, for example.

Remember Stormy Daniels? She's the porn star with whom Trump had an affair and attempted to hush up by slipping her $130,000. Trump's fixer lawyer, Michael Cohen, wound up in jail for serving as the intermediary for this transaction. 

Then there is the notorious BuzzFeed Dossier, which, if it exists, may include evidence that Trump, when in Moscow in 2013 for the Miss Universe pageant cavorted with Russian prostitutes. If true, it is not hard to imagine that former KGB agent Putin has a dossier of his own that includes incriminating evidence of a sexual nature. Enough to buy Trump's silence about Russia's meddling in the 2016 election that swept him into the White House.

And, recently, we are hearing more about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, who for years in Palm Beach provided the famous and rich with access to teenage girls.

Epstein's girlfriend and procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, was recently indicted and jailed in New York without bail on a range of sexual trafficking charges. Prosecutors can't wait to get their hands on her little black book. At least two presidents--one retired, one current--are likely to be found therein. 

Thus, at a covid briefing last week, when Trump, to everyone's surprise, was asked about her, seemingly totally rehearsed, matter of factly, he indicated he knew her and, three times, said he hoped she was "doing well." Code to her--if she gets rid of the address book and doesn't implicate him she'll get the Roger Stone treatment--a commutation or pardon.

And finally, the reporter who asked Trump about Maxwell, as if out of the blue, was Steven Nelson, from, of all places, Rupert Murdoch's NY Post, which hardly qualifies as a newspaper.

Conspiracy theories welcome.

Hint--follow the sex, not the money.

February 7, 2018--Rupert Murdoch's Boys

Rupert Murdoch, worth at least $13.1 billion, owner of various news outlets and TV stations, including in New York, the salacious Post and, nationally, the Wall Street Journal (known for its Neanderthal editorials and high-quality reporting), entertainment companies such as F/X and the National Geographic channels, and of course the nefarious Fox News Channel, home to the likes of Bill O'Reilly (gone but insufficiently forgotten) and Sean Hannity (still awaiting his ultimate fate), Rupert, now married for the 10th or 11th time (kidding) to Mick's Ex, Jerry Hall, approaching 90, with at least half his marbles (enough to talk to Donald Trump almost nightly offering advice and encouragement) has for the past couple of years been dividing and turning his empire over to his two adult sons, James and Lachlan--the entertainment division to the former and the news operation to the latter. 

This represents an opportunity, perhaps even hope, especially for his media holdings in America as son Lachlan is reputed to be of a more liberal persuasion than his father (he pushed vigorously to fire Roger Ailes when his sexual harassment behavior was exposed) and might, just might be inclined to calm things down at Fox by dumping the evening opinion shows (right-wing rants) and while he's at it the insipid morning show, Fox&Friends, which Trump watches religiously and from which he gets many of his most corrosive and paranoid daily talking points.

But then again, Lachlan's half of the pie is the most profitable part, netting the Murdochs nearly $1.0 billion a year in net profit.

Though the money keeps pouring in, Fox News's viewership is aging out and dying off. Their 3.3 million daily viewers are on average 68, almost old enough to be required to begin drawing down their IRAs.

With these trend-lines there's no real future for Fox News as it's currently configured while for Lachlan, only 46, it is too soon to be presiding over such a geriatric operation.

Then, though he holds dual citizenship (he was born in England but lives in America) he is more American than Brit and thus to have a life in New York and Aspen, where he owns a sprawling mansion, to live a cosmopolitan life, presiding over Fox News as it spills hate out over American airwaves, to be responsible for Sean Hannity, is a cultural and social problem. And not to forget, these mesmerized viewers led the spawning of the Trump constancy. No Fox, no Trump.

I can see the possibility of son Lachlan guiding Fox in a still conservative but moderate direction. There is a younger viewership for that and so the bottom line, over a carefully staged transition, would not be undermined. The Fox News channel would remain a cash cow.

On the liberal side, the Washington Post and New York Times (both at the time, as Fox, family owned) over a decade morphed from outlets for traditional Republican editorial policy into liberal institutions. (The New York Post, another example of generational transition, was for many decades very liberal, at times, socialistic, and then along came Rupert Murdoch.)

So there is precedent. Above all, one cannot overemphasize the propensity of children, when inheriting businesses, to want to put there own stamp on things. (That's the Trump story, isn't it?) Of course, children (sons) thinking they're smarter than the "old man" frequently wind up bankrupting the family business. (That's the Trump story, isn't it?)

In regard to Fox News, if that were to happen, I could live with it.

The Murdoch Boys