
Rupert Murdoch might not be flexing for the cameras, but he did just quietly demonstrate the power he still wields inside the Republican Party.
The right-wing media mogul’s empire — which includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post — not-so-subtly backed Mike Johnson as Marjorie Taylor Greene waged an all-out assault against the House Speaker over his decision to pass an aid package for Ukraine. Murdoch’s powerful collection of outlets not only voiced support for Johnson, but leveled scathing attacks on Greene, with the Post even going as far as to blast her as “MOSCOW MARJORIE” on its cover.
But Murdoch was an anomaly, to a large degree, in the right-wing media universe. While his collection of outlets supported Johnson, the hardline faction of MAGA Media spent weeks assailing him. These outlets and personalities — including Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit, and others — portrayed Johnson to their audiences as a squishy Republican who had betrayed the conservative movement and was instead doing the bidding of the Democratic Party.