Former Australian PM says Rupert Murdoch is the biggest threat to democracy in the world

The former prime minister of Australia slammed Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch for the country's "vicious, toxic and unstable" politics.

Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, former Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd slammed the billionaire media mogul as "the greatest cancer on the Australian democracy."

"Murdoch is not just a news organisation. Murdoch operates as a political party, acting in pursuit of clearly defined commercial interests, in addition to his far-right ideological world view," he charged.

The former prime minister noted parallels with America, where the News Corp executive chairman owns Fox News and The Wall Street Journal.

"In the United States, Murdoch's Fox News is the political echo chamber of the far right, which enabled the Tea Party and then the Trump party to stage a hostile takeover of the Republican Party," he noted. "In Australia, as in America, Murdoch has campaigned for decades in support of tax cuts for the wealthy, killing action on climate change and destroying anything approximating multiculturalism."

"Murdoch is also a political bully and a thug who for many years has hired bullies as his editors," he continued. "This has produced a cowering, fearful political culture across the country. I know dozens of politicians, business leaders, academics and journalists, both left and right, too frightened to take Murdoch on because they fear the repercussions for them personally."