Last weekend’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—and Donald Trump’s continued insistence on blaming the violence that broke out in the city on “many sides” as the week has gone on—has drawn the ire of yet another high-profile media figure, with Variety reporting that James Murdoch, CEO of 21st Century Fox, issued an internal memo today calling out the president, and pledging a $1 million donation to the Anti-Defamation League. Murdoch—the likely heir-apparent to his father, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch—has oversight over all of the properties in the Fox Entertainment Group, including Fox News.
In his memo to his employees today, Murdoch talked about the need to denounce Nazis, wherever they pop up. “I can’t even believe I have to write this,” he states. “Standing up to Nazis is essential; there are no good Nazis. Or Klansmen, or terrorists. Democrats, Republicans, and others must all agree on this, and it compromises nothing for them to do so.” Murdoch also briefly called out Trump specifically, writing that “what we watched this last week in Charlottesville, and the reaction to it by the President of the United States, concern all of us as Americans and free people.”
Murdoch—whose wife is a former employee of Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton’s Clinton Foundation, and who’s donated to the group in the past—also pointed to his company’s diversity focused projects, writing, “Certainly no company can be perfect. But I’m proud of the powerful art that can emerge, and I’m grateful to all of my colleagues who make this happen. From the potent and compelling narrative of 12 Years A Slave, to the streets of Pakistan and the bravery of an extraordinary young woman that we saw in He Named Me Malala, to name just a few, we’ve never been afraid to help storytellers and artists say important things—hard things, too.”
Murdoch finished his letter by encouraging others in the company to donate to the ADL. You can read the full text of his memo here.