The Briefing with Albert Mohler - Friday, September 19, 2025

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

This is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.On today’s edition of The Briefing, Dr. Mohler discusses the real ‘succession’ story of Rupert Murdoch and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, and he answers questions about violent video games, conservatives critique of the ‘T’ in LGBTQ but not the rest of its ideology, and parents who suspect their son is dating a transgender woman.Part I (00:15 – 10:01)The Real ‘Succession’ Story: Rupert Murdoch Buys Out Three of His Children to Ensure the Continuation of His Conservative Media EmpirePart II (10:01 – 10:58)More Media News: ABC Pulls Jimmy Kimmel Late Night Show in After Charlie Kirk CommentsPart III (10:58 – 16:32)Do Video Games Play a Role in the Violence of Young Men? — Dr. Mohler Responds to Letters from Listeners of The BriefingPart IV (16:32 – 20:49)Polymorphous perversity in the heartland: The scandal of the Kinsey Institute and Indiana University by AlbertMohler.com (R. Albert Mohler, Jr.)Part V (20:49 – 26:08)Sign up to receive The Briefing in your inbox every weekday morning.Follow Dr. Mohler:X | Instagram | Facebook | YouTubeFor more information on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu.For more information on Boyce College, just go to BoyceCollege.com.To write Dr. Mohler or submit a question for The Mailbox, go here.

It's Friday, September 19, 2025. I'm Albert Moeller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview. The influence of the media is something we always have to watch, and big shifts in terms of the media landscape should have our attention. The worldview of so many people around us is so immediately shaped by the consumption of media and the influence of media. It used to be, you'll remember, that control over the media was very tight. you're talking about three legacy television networks. They controlled the news that most Americans saw. And by that time, television had replaced radio. You had CBS, NBC, ABC. And outside those letters, you basically did not have access to the media. That's when mainstream media really became the entirety of the media landscape. You still had the influence of some leading newspapers.

That continued into the 21st century, but television became absolutely dominant. And the fact is you had those three networks. Was there competition among the three? Yes, there was competition, but not very much conflict, not very much diversity when it came to worldview. There were times in which it was thought NBC is more liberal than CBS. And other times, especially by the time you get towards the end of the 20th century, CBS appeared more liberal than NBC. It's just a matter of debate.

But the point is the control was so tight, it was at least center-left, if not further, left when it came to the media class and that kind of control. Conservatives really didn't have much of a chance. They didn't have much of a voice. All that began to change in the age of cable. And there were some who saw in the development of cable a media opportunity. The top of that list was Ted Turner, establishing what became known as the cable news network, eventually a CNN. But it was not a clear ideological alternative, or it didn't present conservatives that much of an opportunity. It did begin to take an awful lot of the oxygen out of the three major networks, particularly because CNN dared to broadcast news for 24 hours a day. Something that, by the way, the legacy

networks thought wouldn't be attractive to the American people. Turns out it was. And of course, that development spurns some others. Most importantly, the emergence of Fox News. owned by Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, became a competitor to CNN. And then in recent years, it has become dominant in cable news. As a matter of fact, it's dominant in television news, period. At certain points, over the last several months, more than half of those watching news programs were watching a Fox product. And so the left has really been put in a different position than they were.

Conservatives are in a much stronger position, but that really depends. let's just look at it. It depends in terms of cable news and what is now often streamed, but is now considered to have originated in that cable news world. It really depends upon Fox News and the media empire of Rupert Murdoch. And that is a media empire, now that Rupert Murdoch is in his 90s, that is a media empire that conservatives really risk losing. And I really don't want to underestimate that effect, the impact on the impact on. conservative discourse, conservative voices, a conservative transmission of ideas. And it's because Rupert Murdoch's media empire that began with one newspaper in Australia. And now as an international

juggernaut. It includes not only Fox News, which is dominant in that space, it also includes the Wall Street Journal, as well as the New York Post. So we're talking about some very dominant media sources. And the Wall Street Journal is among the two or three most influential newspapers in the world. So when you look at the control over the Murdoch Media Empire, you're talking about a large portion of the media landscape in America. What had been a conservative opportunity could be just a complete loss. And that's because several members of the next generation in the Murdoch family were known to be rather unfriendly to the conservative direction taken by Fox News. and maybe even by the Wall Street Journal, editorial board, etc.

And so the generational transfer, which, after all, was a matter of math, Rupert Murdoch is in his 90s, and he knew it, he knows it, that generational transfer can become quite tricky. A trust had been set up long ago in which the ownership of the entire media empire was going to be in the hands of Rupert Murdoch's children. In particular, the power would have gone to four children, Lachlan, James, Elizabeth, and Prudence. And three of the four, it seems, probably would have taken the Medi Empire in a very different direction.

Rupert Murdoch saw Lachan as his anointed heir. The problem is he could have been outvoted by the other three every single time. So Rupert Murdoch had wisely, it must have seemed at the time, set up this trust in order to make certain that his children, the children he had at that time would be the inheritors of his wealth, and thus the stewards of this vast fortune and the media empire of which it was a part. And yet it looks like that would have been a recipe for an ideological turn.

You had at least some of the children who seemed to be embarrassed by the conservatism of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal and all the rest. So River Murdoch decided to go back and revisit the trust. He went to court to try to basically get out of that trust that had been established.

And years ago, and to anoint Lachlan Murdoch as his heir, at least with control, without total ownership and the total wealth, at least control of that media empire. But he lost, basically, that was not going to happen by legal means. And one of the reasons is that when you establish that kind of trust, it comes with so many complications. And it comes with opportunities for all kinds of tax incentives and tax savings, and especially when it comes to the estate.

and if you agree to those issues, especially in a trust that is almost assuredly irrevocable in normal terms, I mean, it's very hard to go back and revisit it. That wasn't going to work. And so in recent weeks, Rupert Murdoch went to Plan 2, which was a vastly expensive buyout of three of the children in order to put Lachlan in control of the media empire. So, you know, that's one of those things that you say, that'd make an interesting novel. or television series. Well, it was in so many ways a television series. Arguably, two major popular television series were based upon the Murdoch family and the Succession Crisis. Just to say one, it was named Succession, largely based upon this kind of family and this kind of

family conflict. And truth sometimes is stranger than fiction. And so three of the Murdoch children are walking away with a lot of money, and I'll just simply say a mind-boggling a lot of money. And the other is going to have control of the media empire, as well as his share of the estate. Rupert Murdoch, in this point in his life, in this 10th decade of life, has a pretty good idea that the issues are now clarified, and the son who would continue, the conservative legacy would continue. But, you know, this is just one of those other issues in which we just have to go back to that old media sign-off. Stay tuned. This story isn't over yet. And when it comes to the media and it comes to these kinds of issues, it was really interesting that in the Emmy's award program on Sunday night, predictably, a lot of the attention went to Stephen Colbert, host of the late show, which has been canceled by CBS. And again, very much a part of the cultural left. Stephen Colbert is incredibly talented, by the way. No one's going to doubt that. He also knows how to how to really manipulate and take advantage of a situation. That's probably why he's so good.

front of the camera. But he really wanted to turn this situation to his advantage. He was given an Emmy. The program was given an Emmy. And he was given a platform more than one time in the entire program. And he really knew how to use it. But what's really interesting is, even though there's so many on the cultural left who want to present Stephen Colbert as kind of a victim of conservative forces in society, he's really a victim of the fact that his program was losing Eight-figure sums yearly. CBS was losing millions upon millions of dollars. And by the way, you don't stay in business as a corporation if you're losing millions and millions of dollars that way.

And it just shows you there are shifts in the media landscape. That doesn't mean that they're all to the advantage of one side or the other. It's going to be very interesting to see how this comes down. The proliferation of media outlets in new technologies, for instance, has really probably more than anything else. there's been some leveling of the playing field. And it does remind us that the battle in the media, even the battle between technological platforms and the battle between big brands,

the battle sometimes inside one family, points to the fact that worldview is always there. The big issue until this recent development and the future of Fox News is which political positions will take, what political perspective will it assume, and what worldview is going to be presented, or what worldviews or that matter, spectrum of worldviews in that media space. And so at least at this point, it's not going to go

in a more apparently radically liberal direction. But as is so often the case, we're going to have to watch this story because by definition it is unfolding. Once again, we'll stay tuned. And of course, one of the late breaking issues we just should mention is that ABC has put Jimmy Kimmel's show on indefinite suspension after Jimmy Kimmel made some statement. related to the assassination of Charlie Kirk, statements about the person who's been arrested for that crime. And I'm not going to go into what he said. I'm simply going to say that we have an unfolding story before us.

And there is right now an unusual level. It's clearly an unexpected level of media accountability. That's a new thing going on here. But I think at a deeper level, we also understand we should be shocked at what some of these people who, after all, have been influential celebrities. Some of the things they're saying. I'll be honest. I think even those of us who've been aware of these people

and aware of their worldviews for a long time, didn't know that they would do this, but they are. All right, let's turn to questions. I'm not at all surprised about how many questions are continuing along the lines of discussion after the assassination of Charlie Kirk. And, of course, we have the memorial service coming up on Sunday. And no doubt there will be other things for us to consider, even as we're

praying for the family at this time. But I am very interested to see a pattern. And I get so many letters, and I'm thankful for all of them, but I am very interested to see a pattern that develops among the letters. And so here's a very important pattern. The concern about video games is playing into this. And this is where I think an awful lot of Christian parents and Christian young people aren't facing honestly what we're up against here. And so I just want to say, even just in terms of how the platforms work, I want to indicate three big problems in how the platforms work. Number one, they are about more than just playing a game.

So for instance, one of the things that has turned out to be really very, very dangerous, an opportunity for all kinds of horrible things to happen is the fact that you can have chats among players and multiplayer platforms. And those chats are often way outside anything parents know what's going on or anything like that. And some of these boys who've hurt themselves after some of these chats, some of the now girls who've hurt themselves as well. But it's overwhelmingly a young male problem.

And some of the things they talk about and think about, they're just so dark. And parents find out about this so late. So that's one problem. The other problem is that they are appetitive. And so you see this. If you just play this, you score this and you get into this room. Then you get into this room. Then you get into this room.

And look, they know exactly what they're doing. They are built to be appetitive. They are built to make you never turn them off. They are built to make you, I hesitate to use the word addicted because it's so overused. But in this sense, it's almost a classic addiction model. It's an appetitive model. They want to make you ever. more intense in your appetite to continue in these games.

And that's why they devour people's lives. The third part is simply about the content. I think, you know, when I remember when, you know, Pong came out. You were using dashes to try to make dots go the direction you want them to go. There was no narrative. I can remember when Pac-Man came out. And you talk about addictive or repetitive, by the way. Again, I'm not using that clinically.

I'm just simply saying it's hard to walk away from it. And if you're too young to know what Pac-Man is, I'd just say, you know, you're missing a part of your classical education. But nonetheless, I say there, of course, in jest. The bigger part is so much of it's dark. There is a narrative. And the narratives are in so many ways horrifying. And I have parents regularly write me and say, I've discovered that my son has been involved in this gaming platform. And these are some of the thoughts that are very much a part of it.

It's part of the narratives that are very much a part of it. And I'm just telling you, you take those three issues together. You know, how in the world would you put a teenage boy or even younger than teenage? How would you just put in his bedroom and give him access to this and think somehow this isn't going to be a disaster? Thankfully, they're not all a disaster like what we've just seen in headline news, but you know, there's a disaster in every single human soul corrupted by this. And frankly, in every young life diverted by this, I just think it's really important. I'm pleased so many Christians have written into me about this Christian parents. And about the dark part, here is one parent writing in, quote, one detail that I want to point out that I have

casually seen among the transgender gay, well, recently the furry communities, people who think they are or act up as if they are animals is a seemingly heavy presence of video gaming among them. This writer says, I've casually noticed that many of them call themselves gamers and spend a lot of time online engaging in these activities. Indeed, I've had the opportunity to try one of the most recently released virtual reality games where the player is completely immersed in a 360-degree virtual world that eerily pulls the player deep into the simulation, end quote. What could go wrong? I just think it's really important that Christians talk about this out loud. And Christian parents, in particular, I just beg you, pay attention to this, understand what's going on.

And understand that this is an insidious, seemingly when it comes to young people, irresistible draw. And you as parents have to be the even greater force between that video game and your child in disaster. and obviously I'm not saying that they're all exactly the same. I don't even know enough to say that. Oh, I guess I do know enough to say that. I am simply saying, I think we all know there's a big problem. And how many parents tell us the story with heartbreak, that they thought that their child, their young person,

their teenager was doing this, and it turned out they were actually doing that. All right. I want you to prevent that. heartbreak. Okay, very interesting question. Also comes out of this context. A listener from Florida writes and points to the fact that there seem to be many people even on the right, even among conservatives, maybe even among some Christian conservatives or conservatives, I think they're Christian, who are saying, more or less, you take LGBTQ, T's a big problem. Not so much the rest of it.

And you know, I think this is something we do have to confront. I've had to confront it. so regularly I'm just used to it now. And I want to tell you the truth. This White House has sending mixed signals, for example, just on this, where it's taking some very important actions and policy in some areas, and especially on gender identity. I'm so thankful for that. The President's statement is an inaugural address.

There are two and only two genders. They're biologically fixed, male and female. And, you know, even the, you know, again, the definition down to the male having the small reproductive cell and the female having the large reproductive cell. just in case, you know, you can't mess that up. And I'm very thankful for that. But at the same time, there are some very different messaging when it comes to L and G and B. And I do think that's a problem.

This listener writes in saying, why are leaders in media willing to call out trans but just won't say a word about gay and how that's a gateway to that darker realm? Okay. I'm just going to say, I think, one of the big problems, and this is one of the ways that liberal moral revolutions move forward. It is that you have desensitization on issues. You have a moral unwiring on issues. So I'll say how this works. So you take just the issue of the, of the g, gay, gay men, homosexual men. If you just take homosexuality, the way that's desensitized in terms of the unwiring is you just say, well, it's absolutely normal, or at least it's overwhelmingly

common, and the Kinsey reports tried to do that back in the middle of the 20th century, even though the numbers were faked. The evidence was cooked to fit the revolutionary agenda. But you just say, okay, this moves more and more into normal, television sitcoms, you know, all the cultural things, the movies, advertising, they all say, okay, this is normal. And here's the way it works. We're desensitized to it if we're not thinking biblically. We're desensitized to it because another thing, like tea comes. along and an enormous majority of Americans seem to look at T and say, now, that's just gone too far. But if that's your argument, guess what? You just normalized or agreed to normalize

L and G and B. And so this listener is really onto something. I tried to talk about it as a regular issue. The moral revolution works by saying, we're going to take six steps forward. Then we take one step back, and conservatives are so easily bought off to say, we're making progress. No, you are still five steps the wrong way. And this is where Christians have to understand we're not trying to return to a better situation with fewer letters in that equation. We're trying to return to a biblical understanding of gender and sexuality and marriage. And those are two very, very different things. Just reducing the number of letters and LGBTQ plus. That is not victory. It could be necessary in progress, and I think the controversy over T right now threatens

that coalition, frankly, and I think that is important. But it's not enough to have policies on T, and you're going to normalize everything else and just say, okay, that's done. We're moving on from here. And by the way, this is what an awful lot of squishy evangelicals want, okay? This is what an awful lot of that entire kind of moderating movement once. Okay, let's just settle on this and we'll call it progress. This is not something we can settle on. And by the way, one of the ways that that's pushed is let's just stop talking about that. And I mean, lots of folks have just stopped talking about that. Thankfully, not here, not among my listeners. I'm very, very thankful for that. All right. I want to take a question because I think it's just extremely relevant. It's going to be

card. It's extremely relevant. It jumps right out of the headlines. And this is a Christian parent writing to say, I have a son whom I believe is involved in a relationship with someone who appears to be a woman, but we have our doubts. By the way, this person is also identified as an outspoken leader and advocate for trans, has had a legal name and gender change. All this. The other issues are raised in here. I want to speak to this Christian parent who is about to be a situation where this son and this interest, this personal interest, who is identified here as a woman, but we have our doubts in the parents' words, there's about to be a meeting or some opportunity where that's going to happen. You know, I just want to say, I think

this parent, this Christian parent, has reflected some very basic right principles and places to start, even in this communication. I'm not going to go into those in detail. But clearly, this parent is right by saying we need to treat both with dignity and respect. That's true. But you, and, you know, I should say they should go without saying, but it shouldn't go without saying. I appreciate this listener stipulating that. But I think we also need to recognize that the way those are defined by so many in our world today means you have to affirm what someone says when your eyes and your ears tell you it's not so.

And so you can't play along with the game. And your love for your son, I appreciate that, and your concern in this matter. You know, it strikes me that one of the things that has to happen here is that these Christian parents have to have a conversation with the son, just independent of the other individual. I must say, even on the basis of this, I can't say exactly what's being communicated. But doubts, very serious doubts. and a name change. I mean, it certainly appears this is a pretty transparent transgender identity here. I would say that as parents, you can't acknowledge the claim being made here, nor the fact that this is right for your son.

That doesn't mean you don't love your son, and it doesn't mean that you act in any hateful way towards the other person. However, I just want to warn you, the very fact that you've raised this issue means there are certain people that aren't. society who would already say you're being driven by hate. And this is where Christians have to understand if that's the tool they're going to use against us. We're refusing to accept these kinds of claims ludicrous as they are. And coming in the context of what can often be emotional manipulation coming from someone we love, if it is hate or disrespect even to refuse to go along with this because you simply can't go along with the game, then I think all is lost. I also understand the love of parents, Christian parents, especially

for a child, an adult child. And I know good and well, you do not want this to be the last conversation. And I would simply say in spiritual terms, there must be a lot going on here, just in terms of even this child's relationship or lack of relationship with Jesus Christ, and whether or not this person is a Christian. I'm kind of assuming not, just based on this, But I think there's a lot of work to be done here. I want to pray for these Christian parents. This is a very tough position. And it does leap right out at us, right out at us from the headlines.

And our hearts are broken to hear it. I'm grieved to read this. I feel for these parents. But I look at the entire equation and go, you know, this is going to happen to so many Christian families who think it can never happen to us. I think hauntingly, there are some parallels here with the situation so tragic in Utah. and a picture that just grows darker, the closer we look. I can hope that there will be an opportunity for grace and truth and gospel and truth and love and truth and truth and love in your relationship with your son.

And also your influence on this significant other. All right, hard stuff, honest questions, and very difficult times, let's face it. times that are throwing Christians and Christian families, Christian parents, Christian young people, some very, very difficult questions. Some of these are going to have to work out with fear and trembling and seek to do so in a way that's true to the gospel, true to scripture, and honors Christ. And we're going to have to encourage one another in this process and check everything by the scriptures. Thanks for listening to the briefing. For more information go to my website at Albertmuller.com. You can follow me on X or Twitter by going to X.com.

forward slash Albert Moller. For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbtsk.edu. For information on Voice College, just go to voicecollege.com. I'll meet you again on Monday for the briefing.