The inside story of the Murdoch editor taking on Donald Trump | Wall Street Journal

The danger to Donald Trump was open. It was a story not only to draw attention to his connections to a convicted sex criminal, he was also the risk of expanding a growing wedge between the president and his most voice supporters. The White House quickly concluded that the full power response was necessary.

It was Tuesday, July 15th. Wall Street Journal approached Trump’s team and planned to publish Trump’s claims that Jeffrey Epstein has created a raw poem and doodle as part of a collection compiled for a 50th birthday.

The claim was damaged at any moment, but the timing was terrible for the president. The Epstein problem was the biggest crisis of the presidency. Striant Maga fans were angry that the Trump administration refused to release government files about the late sex criminals.

Trump and loyal press secretary Karoline Leavitt reached the nuclear option. From Air Force One, they called the British Chief Editor Emma Tucker of the magazine.

They opened the heat. Trump said the letter was fake. The drawing was not his job. Sue, an action that was released against other media enemies, was threatened.

Washington DC began to mumble with rumors that the magazine was a warm story. When no article was realized on Wednesday, some inside perceived an increasing confidence in the White House that the rear protection actions killed the story. They were wrong.

DC’s gossip mill reached the fire site in the afternoon of Thursday. The article finally appeared early in the evening. The city stopped to read collectively.

The tension intensified during the hours following the broadcast. Trump said that the story was “wrong, malicious and slandering”. On Friday, he filed a lawsuit against the magazine and owners at least $ 10 billion (£ 7.6 billion).

Tucker was at the center of a Maelstrom stress and political pressure. It was the greatest challenge of two and a half years that chaired the magazine, but it was far from the first.

Within two months, a campaign came to the forefront to return to a Russian prison of correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who took parachute from London. He also met with journalists as he passed through a modernization driver with brutal layoffs. Their plans focused on giving stories a sharper advantage. In this metric, Trump suggested that the call was over -gained.

During his rise, he surrounded a mysterious quality Tucker. Friends, colleagues and even some critical employees define a cute, fun and unarmed person. Many of them saw the ability to protect such qualities in the treacherous land of the Murdoch Empire. The puzzle worsens with the assumption that News Corp does not share the right of the legendary Mogulu Rupert Murdoch, the pro -Brexit landscapes.

Nevertheless, Murdoch does not only deliver the magazine to anyone. Although Maga Pro-Maga Fox News is the cash cow of the empire, the magazine is the award-winning ownership of Times, which gives power and respect in the wider US political circles, as in the UK. So why Tucker?

According to people working with it, the response is that the murdoch rates have two qualities: the desire to make non -popular decisions for their work, and a lust for a politically controversial bucket.

“He has a very sharp nose for a good news story – he always did a very sharp nose for a good news story.”

Tucker organized ISIS in Oxford University Student Journal and joined FT as a graduate intern. “My very convincing colleague was a big company and one night was good outside, but you knew you would nail him when he came to work,” he said. “Very hard -to -nose.”

After the clues in Brussels and Berlin, FT’s foreign editor Robert Thomson won a strong ally. Thomson, FT. In 2002, Thomson jumped the ship to edit the Times of London, and in 2008 he was sent to New York to control Murdoch’s newly acquired magazine. Before he left, Thomson helped Tucker’s High School and finally became the assistant editor.

In 2020, which seemed to have influenced Murdoch, he rose to the editor of The Sunday Times. He showed that he was willing to make difficult personnel decisions and expanded Sunday Times’s digital ambitions and reshaped the Brexit paper to appeal to a wider audience.

There he made the enemy of the first populist world leader. Only months later, the Sunday Times released a statement showing how the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson handled Covid Pandemy.

Downing Street exploded, a long -lastingTo condemn “mistakes and mistakes”. Paper Called “The country’s most hostile paper” Although he supported him in the previous year’s elections, the Johnson government. Former Prime Minister’s sister Rachel Johnson is one of Tucker’s best friends.

“I don’t think it’s reckless,” a Sunday Times staff said. “But I think he certainly wanted to push the limits of entering as much as possible.”

Many assumes that the fate of Tucker was to organize the Times, but it was launched in New York to run the magazine at the beginning of 2023 and immediately began a painful arrangement process.

Senior editors were undermined. Pulitzer left the winners. The most powerful DC office was targeted especially with layoffs and new leadership.

One correspondent, another mentioned the serious mental influence of the process of people crying. By making Tucker’s editor divisive, it led to an extraordinary demonstration of journalists who have rolled up their empty office with adhesive notes condemning their dismissal.

Some who accepted the segments questioned the methods. Many pointed out the use of “performance development plans ve, and journalists claimed that unrealistic goals designed to push them out of the door. One described it as “grateful cruel”.

A magazine spokesman: “Performance improvement plans are used to create a development plan that provides feedback and support for employees to set clear targets and meet these goals. It is used exactly as designed.”

Tucker Enigma reappeared in the magazine, because the staff stated the same mixture of the same handsome attitude, enthusiasm for stories, and desire to make deductions.

“Emotionally very smart – 99. Like Persentyl,” he said. They said morale had recovered more recently. New recruitment watched.

There is also a cultural change in stories. The thing that emerges is a Tucker Venn diagram. In the overlapping center, there are stories of two qualities: they cover legitimate areas that are important of the people and target as square in eye -catching issues with digital access.

Tucker gave examples of Elon Musk and China as two potential fields to the investigation reporters. Some complained that the issues were “Clickbaity .. However, a journalist with reservations accepted the following: “Musk was a very good issue.” Tucker’s metric use around the web traffic and the time spent to read a story disturbed some reporters.

The titles were made more directly. Honors such as “MR” and “MRS” were thrown. There was a ban on stories with more than three factories. “He loosen the shortage we had,” an employee said. “We encourage more angry stories to write.”

Positioning the magazine as a fist opponent to the liberal New York Times Juggernaut may be a good business plan, but it continues to be a delicate balance, even if Murdoch does not foul the politics.

“There is a certain moment that Wall Street Journal has to prove its magnitude as a leading business and financial markets media organization, Sad says Tucker’s contemporary Paddy Harveson, now is a communication manager. “He welcomes Trump, but he has a historical editorial views. He really directed the paper along this rope.”

The Allies said that when Tucker published an article about Joe Biden’s alleged cognitive fall, he put a sign of intention in terms of fist stories. It was initially defined by Biden management as a “stroke part .. Some see the Epstein story as the last proof of Tucker’s shift.

However, there are journalists who accuse Trump’s answer for not paying attention to the story. Others do not agree on the scope of Tucker’s changes, pointing to the competing stories of the magazine, including the Hush money paid to Stormy Daniels. However, the clear consequence of the Epstein letter Saga was to draw attention to Tucker’s attempt to change in tons.

Trump’s case means that Furore can just start. Many experienced media figures assume that Murdoch, who does not respond to bullying well, will not be withdrawn. However, both billionaires will not have to face accumulation and explanations. Any settlement from Murdoch may pressure Tucker depending on the details.

Dow Jones, who publishes the magazine, said that “Full confidence in the meticulousness and accuracy of our report and strongly defend against any case”. The courts may have yet to reject Trump’s case.

“I don’t think so [Murdoch] Will just flop, Barber said. The issue here is boasting that Trump killed the story… This is very difficult for an editor. But I’m sure there is no way [Tucker] it was published without supplying properly. “