James Murdoch, son of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, says he walked away from family media empire because it legitimizes disinformation and obscures facts

• James Murdoch, the son of the Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, has criticized his father's media empire in his first major interview since departing News Corp's board in July.
• "A contest of ideas shouldn't be used to legitimize disinformation," Murdoch commented in the interview with The New York Times.
• After leaving News Corp, he set up a foundation to support democratic participation and environmental causes.

James Murdoch, the son of the Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch, said he left his father's media empire because it obscured facts and legitimized disinformation.

In an interview with The New York Times, Murdoch for the first time discussed the reasons for his decision to depart the board of News Corp, the media company owned by his father, which controls publications including The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post as well as several publications in the elder Murdoch's native Australia.

His father's other company, Fox Corporation, owns the Fox News network, which is run by his brother, Lachlan Murdoch.

"I reached the conclusion that you can venerate a contest of ideas, if you will, and we all do and that's important," Murdoch said in the interview. "But it shouldn't be in a way that hides agendas. A contest of ideas shouldn't be used to legitimize disinformation. And I think it's often taken advantage of. And I think at great news organizations, the mission really should be to introduce fact to disperse doubt — not to sow doubt, to obscure fact, if you will."

News Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Murdoch's remarks.

Murdoch announced in July that he was resigning his position at News Corp, having previously told The New Yorker about his unease with coverage at Fox News. Top-rated hosts on the network are ardent supporters of President Donald Trump, and the network has spread misinformation about the coronavirus and climate change.

"There are views I really disagree with on Fox," he remarked in a September 2019 New Yorker article.

News Corp's Australian papers have also published articles questioning the reality of climate change after devastating wildfires in the country last year. In a statement to The Daily Beast earlier in 2020, James Murdoch and his wife, Kathryn, had criticized the "ongoing denial among the news outlets in Australia" as well as on Fox News.

James Murdoch was the top executive at News Corp's UK wing in 2011 when the company's phone-hacking scandal broke. Reporters at British tabloids owned by the company illegally accessed the phones of celebrities, public figures, and crime victims.

In a July statement, Murdoch announced that he was leaving News Corp "due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions."

He said he was setting up a foundation, Quadrivium, that would support democracy, voter participation, and climate-change projects.

Murdoch told The Times that his ability to influence the editorial directions of publications was limited as a board member.

"If you're uncomfortable with those decisions, you have to take stock of whether or not you want to be associated and can you change it or not," he said. "I decided that I could be much more effective outside."