James Murdoch

Tuesday

Cockburn

Does Abigail Spanberger want you to be fat and crazy?

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis coined the phrase “laboratories of democracy” to describe how individual states could act as test cases for different policies and ideas. Judging by its recent track record, Virginia aspires to be the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In November, voters of the Commonwealth elected Governor Abigail Spanberger – a so-called “Blue Dog Democrat” who used to serve in the CIA and railed against socialism and calls to “defund the police” after the Democrats underperformed in the 2020 elections. Virginia Democrats also retained control of the state’s Senate and House.

Thursday

Clare McHugh

Inside the Murdoch family fallout

Terrific scripts, marvelous acting and glamorous locales – plus that haunting theme song – made HBO’s Succession superlative television. The show also took the sheen off being a billionaire. Who among us, watching Logan Roy (a barely veiled stand-in for media mogul Rupert Murdoch) mess with his children’s psyches, didn’t think “Isn’t it perilous to be quite so loaded?” Journalist Gabriel Sherman’s new book prompts a similar, aversive recoil. Every family has squabbles, but the Murdochs have fallen out with shocking animosity. Though it’s hyperbolic to claim, as the author does, that the struggle for control of News Corp broke the world, his gruesomely detailed account reveals how shattering the battles have been to those who fought them.

Thursday

Amber Duke

James and Kathryn Murdoch exposed as left-wing mega-donors

It is no secret that James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife Kathryn have supported Democratic causes. But a new report from CNBC reveals that the couple launched a massive spending effort ahead of the 2020 election that rivaled left-wing billionaire George Soros. Data released last spring indicated that James and Kathryn gave $11 million to political causes, including $2.5 million to Democrats. However, they also quietly gave a stunning $100 million to James's nonprofit foundation, Quadrivium, in 2019, a 'large chunk' of which went to political groups. 'The 2019 tax document shows that of the $100 million given to the foundation, over $25 million went toward grants, including for several political causes,' CNBC reported.

James Murdoch and Kathryn murdoch Hufschmid (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)