Is the Fox Turning?

Rupert Murdoch speaks regularly by phone with President Trump. But Murdoch also makes his views known to Trump through his newspapers and television networks. Lately the messages in those outlets have not been altogether positive for the president.

The conservative media mogul's papers have run a series of critical editorials and stories, spurring speculation among observers that Murdoch is trying to get through to the president.

  CNN

What's Rupert's beef with Trump? Not building that wall fast enough? Not bombing enough shit out of ISIS?

Murdoch's most prestigious outlet, the Wall Street Journal, ran an eye-popping editorial in its conservative-leaning opinion pages on Tuesday.

Titled "The Trumps and the Truth," the editorial scolded the president's family for withholding information about Russia-related meetings and discussions.

[...]

It was the latest in a series of eyebrow-raising editorials. Last week Murdoch's New York tabloid, the New York Post, labeled Donald Trump Jr. an "idiot" and "criminally stupid."

Ouch!

President Trump grew up reading the Post and still has it delivered at the White House, so the editorial may have caught his eye.

I would have expected a tweet calling the Post "Fake News" if it had. The staff probably told him the dog ate it.

It came on the heels of another blunt assessment by the Post's editorial board last month.

A three-word editorial about Trump's Twitter habits at the end of June said, simply, "Stop. Just stop."

Ate that edition, too.

Murdoch's Fox News Channel is a reliable source of pro-Trump boosterism from morning until night. But some critical voices have gained attention on Fox, too, including Charles Krauthammer, who recently said "bungled collusion is still collusion."

Krauthammer, too? Damn.

I can't get to the Wall Street Journal article without a subscription, but this isn't the first time the editors have criticized Trump.  Here's the NYT on a WSJ op-ed dated March 21, titled "A President's Credibility."

The editorial was an extraordinarily harsh rebuke of President Trump, calling him “his own worst political enemy” and asserting that he was damaging his presidency “with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.”

[...]

“Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth, most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.”

[...]

In particular, the editorial board pointed to Mr. Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that former President Barack Obama had tapped his phones. “The President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle,” the editorial said.

  NYT

Double damn!

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.