Rupert Murdoch’s announcement of his stepping down as chair of News Corp and Fox News will no doubt bring cheers from millions of people around the world. His toxic version of news, clogged with its customary sensationalism, deliberate misinformation, influence over governments, and promotion of what amounts to a twentieth century form of fascism, has inflicted a great deal of harm.

Murdoch announced the news in his United States flagship newspaper the Wall Street Journal. But the 92-year-old tycoon is not exactly going into retirement. He will merely change roles, and most probably, continue to exert his toxic influence from behind his son Lachlan.

He wrote, “For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles.”

Lacklan is a chip of the old block, groomed to continue on the same track. He shares his father’s politics and style. There will be no change here, and it might even get worse.

Rupert Murdoch’s stepping down form formally leading the media empire makes sense. At 92, he hasn’t a lot of time to hand over the family business. More importantly, the business is enmeshed in a series of scandals and lawsuits, with him as the central figure. His reputation, and that of NewsCorp, Fax, his other media platforms have fallen around the word. Newsprint circulation is falling, and so are viewers of his television stations.

Try as he may, Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to penetrate as the principal force in digital media and information has hit a brick wall.

This scenario is reflected within Australia, where he originally came from. Rupert inherited the origins of his empire from his father Sir Kieth Murdoch, who already owned a big slice of Australia’s print media. It was after expanding to England taking over the smutty news of the World, and introducing the anti-union headquarter in Wapping with the support of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. This became the model and springboard for the rise of the global empire.

In Australia, Murdoch moved to successfully take over more than three quarters of print, television, and radio media. Governments assisted this by progressively watering down laws limiting cross ownership over different forms of media.

Murdoch’s capacity to make or break governments paved the way. His power became so potent that would be prime ministers and government required his endorsement to succeed.

Through this, Murdoch was able to shape policies. The keystone ones were the promotion of extreme neoliberalism in economic and social policy; fanning racism against those of colour and different faith; leading media away from investigative reporting, towards trivialised, manufactured, and misinformation news. He has been a leading force in involving Australia in a series of wars against others.

Rupert Murdoch, who went on to centre his empire in the United States and become a citizen of that country, has been crucial to how far the unhealthy subservience of Australia to the demands of Washington has gone. A relationship which has brought a shift towards the militarisation and leads us to confrontation with China.

Murdoch is a major influencer over domestic policies, ranging from economic management and industrial relations to health and education, climate change and lowering carbon emissions, the treatment of Australasia’s first peoples, and the treatment of refugees arriving by boat.

NewsCorp and its satellites have had a corrosive effect. Although the departure of Rupert Murdoch might be regarded as a wonderful thing to see, it is action that puts an end to the monopoly he created that I needed.

For a start, cross media ownership laws must be restored. outlawing anyone from having a private monopoly over media is the next step.

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Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Srecko Horvat, the co-founder of DiEM25, chair the event, organized by Progressive International and the Wau Holland Foundation.

Members of the tribunal include Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Noam Chomsky, linguist and activist Jeremy Corbyn, member of U.K. Parliament and founder of the Peace and Justice Project, and many more.

Video from Democracy Now!

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John and Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s father and brother, will kick off the #HomeRun4 Julian tour in Miami on June 6, then travel to over a dozen U.S. cities for the rest of the month, wrapping up in Washington, D.C. in July. Some events will be live-streamed, and the pair plans to meet with activists, journalists, and policymakers along the away.

“My brother Julian Assange has effectively been a prisoner for over a decade because he published evidence of war crimes,” said Gabriel Shipton in a statement Thursday. “The U.S. government wants to make an example out of him to deter journalists and whistleblowers.

Gabriel and John Shipton

Assange has been held at Her Majesty’s Prison Belmarsh in London for over two years, since he was forcibly dragged from the Ecuadorian Embassy in the city, where he had sought refuge in 2012. A British judge in January declined the Trump administration’s request to extradite Assange to face charges of violating the Espionage Act, concluding he would be at extreme risk of suicide.

Since taking office, U.S. President Joe Biden has continued to ignore global calls to end the extradition effort and drop all charges. The Department of Justice formally appealed Judge Vanessa Baraitser’s decision in February. Forty-nine-year-old Assange could face up to 175 years in a maximum-security prison if he is extradited to the United States.

“Gabriel and I are excited to talk to the American public on why protecting journalism and freeing Julian is so important to a free press,” said John Shipton, who toured their home country of Australia this month to advocate for his son. “This issue is bigger than just Julian. Freedom of the press in America impacts every part of the world.”

The U.S. tour is sponsored by the Courage Foundation, which was founded in 2013 as the Journalistic Source Protection Defense Fund.

Assange is a trustee of the foundation, which supports whistleblowers and other truth-tellers—or “those who risk life or liberty to make significant contributions to the historical record.”

“For the first time in American history, a journalist has been indicted for publishing truthful information in the public interest,” Courage Foundation director Nathan Fuller said of Assange. “That’s why press and human rights groups around the world are in agreement that this is an existential threat to investigative reporting.

Press freedom advocates last month marked the two-year anniversary of Assange’s arrest by British police by reiterating demands that the Biden administration immediately drop all charges against him. Nils Melzer, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, has also long advocated for Assange’s release.

In a December 2020 open letter asking then-President Donald Trump to pardon Assange, Melzer wrote that “I can attest to the fact that his health has seriously deteriorated, to the point where his life is now in danger.

Critically, Mr. Assange suffers from a documented respiratory condition which renders him extremely vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic that has recently broken out in the prison where he is being held.”

Melzer and the mayor of Geneva are among dozens of people planning to join a June 4 event in the Swiss city to launch the “Geneva Call to Free Assange,” which supporters are promoting online with the hashtag #GVA_FreeAssange.

“The ‘AnythingToSay‘ statue dedicated to whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning as well as to Julian Assange will be installed at the same time on the Pâquis pier in front of the Geneva Jet d’eau,” according to an event webpage. “The Association of Users of the Bains des Pâquis, initiator and organizer of the event, will also present an exhibition on whistleblowers.”

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