Fox News Media Buzz host Howard Kurtz talked about the legacy of Rupert Murdoch, who announced that he will be stepping down from his position as the head of both Fox and News Corp. boards.  

In a letter released last week, the 92-year-old media mogul explained that his son Lachlan will replace him as the sole chairman of both companies. While Rupert Murdoch will retain the title of chairman emeritus, his son will take over the reins of the two media giants. 

“Rupert Murdoch started out 70 years ago after inheriting a small Australian newspaper from his father,” said Kurtz on Sunday. “He acquired other papers over the years, The New York Post, and The Wall Street Journal, whose character he pledged to preserve and did.”  

Kurtz said it’s hard to overstate the scope of the industries that Murdoch transformed. Murdoch created a fourth TV network, which was the Fox Broadcast Network.  

“Which such iconic hits as The Simpsons,” Kurtz said. “Stunning the sports world by outbidding CBS to air NFL games, and of course, the creation of Fox News.”  

Murdoch also got into book publishing by purchasing Harper Collins and became a movie mogul by buying 20^th Century Fox before selling the studio to Disney four years ago.  

“The billionaire leans right, but he’s a pragmatist, supporting politicians of different stripes from Margaret Thatcher to Tony Blair to Ed Kotch of New York,” Kurtz continued. “He often spoke to President Trump but distanced himself after the tragedy of January 6^th.”  

“While the Fox haters have been out in full force, it’s no accident that Fox News is watched by plenty of Democrats and independents.”  

Kurtz added that in the decade that he’s been at the network, he’s only talked to Murdoch a handful of times, which he says undercuts the notion that tells his hosts what to say.  

OutKick’s Tomi Lahren weighed in on Washington Post reporter Emily Heil’s report regarding the news outlet’s piece on Barstool Sport’s Dave Portnoy’s One Bite Pizza Festival that occurs on Sept. 23 at Maimonides Park in Brooklyn, NY. 

The Post wrote a detailed story about Portnoy’s impact on some of these Pizzierias through his reviews. Furthermore, businesses participating in the festival were accused of supporting a man with a history of sexual misconduct and offensive language that he defended as jokes.

Nonetheless, before the piece ran, Portnoy got ahead of the story, to which Lahren applauded his actions. Additionally, Lahren believes that Heil wrote the story as a hit piece and noted that journalism is dead because of stories like these.

“This isn’t your grandfather’s Woodward and Bernstein era Washington Post,” Lahren wrote for OutKick. “These are activists with MacBooks and it couldn’t be more obvious. But Dave was smart and savvy enough to not only play their game but body them in the process. 

“This Emily gal deserves the inevitable and lasting internet and social media embarrassment that will forever be associated with her byline. Play stupid games and win stupid prizes. Those are my Final Thoughts.”

Geraldo Rivera departed Fox News under less-than-ideal circumstances earlier this year. That doesn’t mean he can’t share admiration for departing Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch.

During an appearance on CNN Tonight with Laura Coates after Murdoch announced he would exit his long-held role with the company, Rivera had good things to say about the media titan.

“He has always been nice to me, kind to me, (and) generous. When they cut my salary in half — when they had the big cutback before the pandemic — I went up and I said, ‘Hey boss, this is not right. I went in to combat for you and this and that,’ and he called downstairs and he said, ‘Okay, restore part of that cut.’ So, I see him as a good boss,” Rivera said. “A vibrant, charismatic guy, still full of verb and energy at 92 years old.”

Rivera went on to defend Murdoch from accusations that the salacious and partisan news coverage provided by his outlets was a ploy to advance conservative causes.

“I think it does a disservice to think that it was all sleazy kind of opportunism because I don’t believe that he believed that. I believe that he was sincerely motivated,” said Geraldo Rivera. “He could have, for example, when Fox News was being created, gone the way of other Fox syndicated programs like A Current Affair and gone tabloid and celebrities and all that TMZ kind of stuff.

“Instead, he went to serve a conservative audience, and while I disagree with almost everything in all of their positions — the majority of talent at Fox News — I appreciate the fact that half the people believe — for example — that abortion is a moral wrong, or that gun rights are absolute, or that immigration is bad, or that the climate is not changing. They’re very skeptical about that. Those are people who deserve to have their media.”