New York: News Corporation chief executive Robert Thomson has blamed the Trump administration’s excesses on immigration policy for the Republicans’ midterm election defeat, warning that to ignore Hispanic Americans is to ignore the country’s modern make-up.
Thomson made the comments as he was being honoured with a lifetime achievement award by the American Australian Association (AAA) in New York on Thursday night (US time), two days after the electoral wipeout that catapulted the Democrats into control of the US Congress.
“To ignore Hispanic America is to ignore contemporary America,” he told this masthead. “Hispanic Americans believe in the American dream.”
The remarks reveal a belief by the News Corp boss that Trump administration excesses on immigration policy – chiefly the arrest and detention of non-criminal migrants in the major cities by the Department of Homeland Security – played a significant role in Republican losses in states such as Texas.
His analysis differs from narratives offered by prominent Republicans, such as Vice President JD Vance, who blamed the war in Iran , and Texas senator Ted Cruz, who emphasised the party’s failure to communicate a coherent message on the cost of living.
Thomson, who was born in Victoria and had a storied journalistic career before becoming News Corp’s top executive in New York, charmed the room as he accepted the award for his contribution to the American-Australian alliance.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman emeritus of News Corp and Fox Corporation, attended the gala dinner in a rare New York outing. The 95-year-old media mogul, wearing a suit and sneakers, was assisted out of a black sedan and did not answer questions about the election as he entered the ballroom at Cipriani Wall Street.
Murdoch spent the evening at the head table next to wife Elena Zhukova, and his son and heir Lachlan . Also seated nearby were Australia’s ambassador to the US Greg Moriarty and his wife Sara, and former Fox Sports president David Hill – who was also born in Australia – alongside numerous other distinguished guests.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott was spotted double-parked with a red and white wine talking to New York Post columnist Miranda Devine. Outgoing consul-general Heather Ridout spoke, as did the evening’s host, AAA president and former South Australian premier Steven Marshall.
Guests in the 1100-capacity ballroom enjoyed a starter of burrata with heirloom tomatoes and black olives, beef filet with asparagus and potato dauphinoise for main, and vanilla meringue cake for dessert.
The midterm elections result was the talk of the evening – especially how the US president might be taking it. “Not well,” said one person in the room who knows Donald Trump.
Lachlan Murdoch, the chief executive of Fox Corporation, introduced Thomson as a “great colleague, true partner, strong leader and dear friend”, who rose from humble beginnings to become a visionary chief executive.
He had the “misfortune of starting life in Victoria,” Murdoch mused, the start of several jokes throughout the evening about the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. At school, Thomson was a star AFL player – “where height is valued over athletic ability,” Murdoch said.
But it was Thomson who tugged on heart strings with a warm and funny speech that indulged his passion for alliteration while delivering a subtle rebuke of Trump, and honouring his own mother, who died just two weeks ago in Melbourne.
Thomson returned to Melbourne to say goodbye, and rewrote his speech in the wake of his mother’s death. “I asked how she was feeling,” he recalled. “There was a pause before she answered. And then she said, ‘All things considered, I’m doing rather well’.”
The 65-year-old Thomson was born in Torrumbarry, a small town on the Murray River and the NSW/Victorian border. “The best way of thinking about the Murray River is that it separates civilisation from the barbarians,” he observed to laughter.
He began his career at the Melbourne Herald (now the Herald Sun ), became Beijing correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald , and then moved to the Financial Times , eventually editing its prestigious Weekend edition.
But it was at Murdoch’s empire that Thomson ultimately thrived. He was editor of The Times of London , before moving to the US to become managing editor of The Wall Street Journal and then chief executive of News Corp.
Still, he remained a journalist at heart. Throughout his career, Thomson has been a noted critic of big tech – a theme he continued at the event as he queried the social media giants: “The smartest engineers on the planet creating the most compulsive experiences”.
As for artificial intelligence, Thomson took issue with Trump’s attempt to rebrand AI as “superintelligence”. “I’m not sure it is superintelligence,” he said. “It lacks intuition. It is, by nature, retrospective.
“It’s based on pre-existing patterns. And it is absolutely genius at repurposing those patterns.”
What AI could not do was capture the “innate absurdity” of human life. Humanity’s strength was “our lateral creativity in a resolutely linear age”, he said.
Along with Rupert Murdoch, Thomson was one of the News Corp personnel sued by Donald Trump over The Wall Street Journal ’s coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein story – specifically, its bombshell story about the “birthday letter” Trump allegedly signed. That did not stop Thomson poking fun at the president’s penchant for self-congratulation.
“We all know that President Trump is fond of awards – extremely fond of awards,” he said. “Of all the awards that the president seeks, that he craves, the one that he surely most cherishes is the American Australian Association. Forget the FIFA Peace Prize, the Nobel Prize.”
“Mr President, I honestly don’t know if Norway is a shithouse country, as you said. It’s a very Australian word. But, Mr President, I can assure you that Australia is not a shithouse country.”
Thomson received a standing ovation before making way for the night’s entertainment, singer-songwriter Nick Cave, who played six songs seated at the grand piano.
Rupert Murdoch left early, but Lachlan stayed until the end. On the way out, Lachlan did not want to discuss politics, but offered his thoughts on Thomson. “Wonderful evening,” he said. “Robert spoke incredibly well.”
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