James Murdoch, chief executive of Fox News' parent company, became the latest corporate leader to blast President Donald Trump over his response to the recent racially charged attack in Charlottesville, Va.
"(W)hat 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 wrote in an email letter to friends. "These events remind us all why vigilance against hate and bigotry is an eternal obligation _ a necessary discipline for the preservation of our way of life and our ideals."
Murdoch's letter was noteworthy because of his company's ownership of the conservative Fox News Channel, which is one of Trump's favorite news sources. Fox News has been a staunch defender of Trump's presidency. In addition, Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch's 86-year-old father and the company's founder, has become an informal adviser to the president.
"I can't even believe I have to write this: 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 wrote.
His missive comes in the wake of several other CEOs quitting Trump's business councils and publicly admonishing him for not taking a tougher stand against extremism.
Trump was widely criticized for blaming "both sides" in the deadly violence last weekend that followed a march in which some white nationalists chanted anti-Jewish statements. Murdoch said that he and his wife, Kathryn, had made a $1 million donation to the Anti-Defamation League.
Resignations from Trump's business councils began on Monday and snowballed until Trump said he was disbanding the manufacturing and economic advisory councils Wednesday morning. Many of the executives cited their personal beliefs _ and not just business reasons _ as the impetus for their action.
Kenneth Frazier, the CEO of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. and one of corporate America's leading black executives, was the first to quit on Monday.
"America's leaders must honor our fundamental values by clearly rejecting expressions of hatred, bigotry and group supremacy, which run counter to the American ideal that all people are created equal," Frazier said. "As CEO of Merck and as a matter of personal conscience, I feel a responsibility to take a stand against intolerance and extremism."
Management and brand experts said the business leaders were trying to distance themselves and their companies from Trump.
"There's not enough spin in the world to justify (Trump's) position on this," Marlene Towns, a professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.
"Generally, it's a bad idea to align your brand with the KKK and white nationalists. You don't need a Ph.D. in marketing to arrive at that conclusion," she added.
Murdoch's position continues a generational change at 21st Century Fox. It was James Murdoch and his older brother, Lachlan Murdoch, who serves as co-chairman of Fox and sister company News Corp., who pressed for the firing of Roger Ailes, the once-powerful founder and architect of Fox News, in July 2016 amid allegations of widespread sexual harassment at the news unit. (Ailes died in May.)
