Rupert Murdoch's son James, the heir likely to control Fox News, "is an avowed leftist," Newsmax host Ed Henry said Tuesday night.
Henry, a former Fox News host, told Newsmax's Rob Schmitt that the elder Murdoch lost a major legal battle over his trust, giving three of his liberal children led by James control over the future of the network. [See: Fox News Heir Vows to Radically Change Network]
Henry told Schmitt that while Murdoch and his son Lachlan lean conservative, Newsmax has been growing because of uncertainty over Fox’s future.
"Over at Fox, there's deep concern," Henry told Schmitt.
Even before the Murdoch family's legal battles erupted publicly, the network has come under criticism for its move to the left on key issues.
In recent years, the Murdoch news empire, including Fox News, has embraced climate change while at the same time launching Fox’s sister channel Fox Weather to support the climate change agenda.
On social issues such as abortion and transgender, Fox has moved its coverage to promote woke social change, even praised a family for transitioning their child, all while internally changing company policies to embrace woke gender rules.
President Donald Trump has joined in on the criticism of the network, saying the network opposed his election in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
During the 2024 election, Trump said Fox "has grown weak and soft on Democrats" and noted the network "has totally lost its way."
Trump for his part has encouraged his supporters to tune into Newsmax.
"Newsmax is terrific," Trump said, adding that "millions of people are watching."
Henry notes the changes are clearly helping to grow Newsmax’s audience.
"But Newsmax is obviously on the rise, and we continue to grow in large part because of concerns about the direction of Fox, because James, to your point, he is an avowed leftist," Henry told Schmitt.
"He and his wife Catherine have given millions and millions of dollars [to] climate-change causes, Biden, you name it, you go right down the list," Henry said.
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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