Crikey’s open letter lays bare Lachlan Murdoch’s legal fight
Independent news website Crikey has taken out ad space in The New York Times and The Canberra Times in order to run an open letter to Lachlan Murdoch, stating its intent to defend its journalism in court, after alleged threats of a defamation suit.
The letter will run in Monday’s New York Times (22 August), and Tuesday’s Canberra Times (23 August). Alongside the note, Crikey has also published all “legal demands and accusations” this evening between Murdoch’s lawyers and its own legal correspondence in full “so people can judge your allegations for themselves”, the letter wrote.
The Crikey website now shows a section “The Lachlan Murdoch Letters”, which features the full legal correspondence, alongside articles from Eric Beecher, Peter Fray, and Bernard Keane.
Lachlan Murdoch and wife, Sarah Murdoch
The letter reads: “As you know, nearly two months ago Crikey published a piece of commentary about the sorry state of US politics, and the January 6 insurrection, that mentioned the Murdoch family name twice.”
“You responded through your lawyer with a series of letters in which you accused us of defaming you personally in that story.”
“Crikey is an independent Australian news website, launched in 2000, covering politics, media and public issues. We at Crikey strongly support freedom of opinion and public interest journalism. We are concerned that Australia’s defamation laws are too restrictive.”
Crikey homepage 22 August
An article in The Sydney Morning Herald/The Age on Sunday 14 August reported that the CEO and co-chairman of News Corp, and executive chairman of Fox Corp Lachlan Murdoch had sent multiple legal threats to Crikey following an article published in June.
The article written by Bernard Keane, ‘Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator’ was initially removed after posting, however was reposted by Crikey and its publisher Private Media last week following the SMH article.
Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch claimed the article and its remarks were defamatory towards him and his father.
The full letter, written by editor-in-chief of Crikey, Peter Fray and chairman of Private Media, Eric Beecher
The letter continued: “We want to defend those allegations in court. You have made it clear in your lawyer’s letters you intend to take court action to resolve this alleged defamation.
“We await your writ so that we can test this important issue of freedom of public interest journalism in a courtroom.”
Will Hayward, CEO of Private Media told Mumbrella “the whole thing is bizarre”, but that there is “no doubt it is the right thing to do”.
A statement added: “We don’t think it is a controversial view that Fox News, and those who run it, might have played a part in the events of January 6th 2021. But even more than this, we think it is absolutely essential that we defend the right to publish this view. A free press is essential in a functioning democracy and, whilst we didn’t start this fight, we are prepared to defend our reporting, and the right to publish opinion that the powerful disagree with, in court.”
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Calum Jaspan was news editor at Mumbrella, based in Melbourne. He was also the producer and host of the Mumbrellacast. He left Mumbrella in May 2023.
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“We don’t think it is a controversial view that Fox News, and those who run it, might have played a part in the events of January 6th 2021. But even more than this, we think it is absolutely essential that we defend the right to publish this view.”
The inference is that somehow Fox incited the riot and unless they can prove that then Crikey is in deep trouble. Just because you believe something does not mean you can publish – especially when you are effectively accusing Fox of treason.
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Going to be an expensive PR exercise for them.
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Well done Crikey! Too many half truths and too much nod, nod, wink wink from our our big business “media” organisations, who specialise in homogenised journalism
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