A quote about Rupert Murdoch and white men attributed to New Zealand’s prime minister is bogus – Poynter

If youre a fan of Fox News, you may be a little upset with a quote going around about its founder, media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

According to social media posts, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recently said that her country doesnt have an issue with the rage of older white men because it has never allowed Murdoch to start a media company there.

Asked why New Zealand does not suffer from the rage of older white men like in other western Anglo countries, PM Jacinda Adern replied, Because weve never allowed Rupert Murdoch to set up a media outlet here. The guy has wreaked havoc on civil society in (the) US,a tweet re-shared on Instagramsays.

The post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about ourpartnership with Facebook.)

The tweet, which misspells Arderns name, is wrong. We could find no record of Ardern saying this in searches of news archives or inmeeting transcriptsfrom New Zealands House of Representatives.

Arderns office said the quote lacks legitimacy.

The Prime Minister did not make this statement. I have no idea who made it up, Andrew Campbell, Arderns spokesperson, told PolitiFact in an email.

The quote may have been re-appropriated from a statement about Murdoch made by David Cormack, a former policy and communications director for New Zealands Green Party.

Cormack told the Guardianin October 2020 that a huge reason that our politics is not so extremely polarised and so far out there is because we no longer have Murdoch-owned press in New Zealand, and its never taken a foothold.

The statement wasnt about the rage of older white men. And Cormack didnt claim that New Zealand never allowed Murdoch to set up shop there. The Murdoch-owned News Corphas had stakesin New Zealand media companies in the past.

Cormack acknowledged that his quote was being misattributed on Twitter several times, at one pointwriting, New Zealand, i am @jacindaardern now. Im sorry. I dont make the rules.

Social media posts claim that Ardern said New Zealand doesnt have issues with the rage of older white men because the country never allowed Rupert Murdoch to start a media outlet there.

There is no evidence that Ardern, or anyone else, said this. A similar statement about Murdoch was made by a former New Zealand Green Party communications director, but its not the same quote.

We rate these posts False.

This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. It is republished here with permission. See the sources for this fact check hereand more of their fact checkshere.

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A quote about Rupert Murdoch and white men attributed to New Zealand's prime minister is bogus - Poynter