Rupert Murdoch pleads with newspaper to stop using “fake news” quote
Rupert Murdoch has written to the Guardian, asking the newspaper to stop attributing a "fake" quote to him.
The executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, which last week agreed an £11.7bn deal to takeover Sky, has taken issue with the following quote:
“When I go into Downing Street, they do what I say; when I go to Brussels, they take no notice.”
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Murdoch said in the letter:
There is much fake news published about me, but let me make clear that I have never uttered those words. I have made it a principle all my life never to ask for anything from any prime minister.
The quote has been reported by numerous other publications.
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According to the Guardian, it was first reported by the Evening Standard, whose columnist Anthony Hilton said:
I once asked Rupert Murdoch why he was so opposed to the European Union. ‘That’s easy,’ he replied. ‘When I go into Downing Street they do what I say when I go to Brussels they take no notice.’