Three of Rupert Murdoch's largest and most powerful news outlets promoted baseless conspiracy theories that Google is using its alleged “close ties” with the Obama administration to receive favorable treatment and to push its policy agenda. Murdoch has a long history of attacking Google.

On March 24, News Corp's Wall Street Journal reported on the purportedly close ties between the Obama administration and Google after discovering that Google employees have visited the White House multiple times since President Obama took office. The piece went on to allege that Google used its ties with the White House to get favorable action from a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust probe into the company. 

The New York Post (News Corp) went further on March 28 in an article titled “Google controls what we buy, the news we read - and Obama's policies.” The article speculated that Google has used its influence and financial contributions to the Obama administration to receive favors including net neutrality regulation, favorable FTC action, and contracts to fix the Affordable Care Act's website. The piece speculated on “what's coming next: politically filtered information.”   

21st Century Fox's Fox News echoed the New York Post during the March 30 edition of Fox & Friends, with co-host Clayton Morris claiming “the same search engine that controls our news also controls the White House.” During the show, Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo claimed that Google was “being investigated, the president dropped it -- net neutrality -- Google wanted the president to go that way.” Bartiromo also speculated on whether Google was “editing” the news “to make it more favorable for the president.”

But the Wall Street Journal admitted that the “FTC closed its investigation after Google agreed to make voluntary changes to its business practices.” And the FTC pushed back critically to the Journal's piece, writing: 

The article suggests that a series of disparate and unrelated meetings involving FTC officials and executive branch officials or Google representatives somehow affected the Commission's decision to close the search investigation in early 2013. Not a single fact is offered to substantiate this misleading narrative. 

Rupert Murdoch, head of both News Corp and Twenty-First Century Fox, has a history of attacking Google. Murdoch has accused Google of being "piracy leaders," and in 2009 found himself in a war of words against Google and threatened to block his content from the search engine.