Maria Altaffer/AP
By Brian Stelter, CNN Business
In a forthcoming book, a pair of New York Times reporters and CNN political analysts report that President Joe Biden "assessed" Fox News "as one of the most destructive forces in America."
The reporters, Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns, say Biden was even more critical of Fox Corp patriarch Rupert Murdoch.
According to the book, Biden told an anonymous associate in mid-2021 that Murdoch was "the most dangerous man in the world."
The description comes in many chapters of "This Shall Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future," due out in May.
The book describes Fox as a "torrent of anti-Biden programming, stoking vaccine skepticism and spreading wild conspiracy theories about the January 6 attack."
Many Biden allies have denounced Fox for those reasons, blaming Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan, the company's CEO, for allowing hosts like Tucker Carlson.
But Biden has never spoken about Murdoch in public, according to the Factba.se database of the president's speeches, interviews, tweets and other public statements. So the comment on "This will not happen" can make waves.
A White House spokesman declined to comment on the book's claim about Biden criticizing the elder Murdoch.
Biden sometimes tangles with Fox White House correspondent Peter Doocy and was stuck on a hot mic in January calling Doocy "a stupid son of a bitch." Biden later called him to apologize.
Biden also occasionally makes an aside about Fox's opposition programming. Last October, at a CNN town hall, he said "I turn on Fox to find out how popular I am," earning laughs from the audience.
Reports from Martin and Burns point to a much darker trial of Fox's boss behind closed doors.
The CNN Wire
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