Murdoch's Status anxiety

Rupert makes an angry call

March 18, 2025

(Exclusive) In a splashy Wall Street Journal profile complete with artful portraits of the subject and his new employee, media writer Isabella Simonetti trumpeted the success of former CNN journalist Oliver Darcy and his newsletter Status. “Oliver Darcy left CNN, one of the most recognized news outlets in the world, to start a newsletter,” Simonetti wrote. “It has quickly become a must-read for the power brokers of publishing and entertainment.”

But, we have learned, one Journal reader was absolutely “livid” about the piece and made their complaints vehemently known to Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Journal, called Tucker and berated her about the article, a person with knowledge of the matter tells us. What may have drawn Murdoch’s rage? Darcy aggressively reports on another outlet Murdoch owns — Fox News — and regularly calls it a “propaganda network.” And in a piece for CNN’s Reliable Sources last year he criticised the Journal’s reporting on Joe Biden’s mental acuity. A rep for Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal declined to comment.

Murdoch's Status anxiety

Breaker Media