Rupert Murdoch-Trump Relations: Is Trump Favoring Some News Media? Only Media Tycoon-Owned Outlets Get To Ask Questions In Press Conference With Japan’s Shinzo Abe

President Donald Trump may have called out the media for false reports but he does have his favorites and coincidentally — or not — these are the ones owned by his friend and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

This was demonstrated at Friday’s joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe where the only two U.S. publications — the New York Post and Fox Business Network — that got to ask questions were owned by Murdoch’s News Corp.

One of the reporters called on by Trump was the Post’s Daniel Halper, who had published a book criticizing Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2014. Halper asked for Trump’s comments on the court ruling that held off his travel ban and asked Abe for his thoughts on the U.S. president’s decision to drop out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, of which Japan is a member. Fox Business’ Blake Burman was the only other U.S. reporter to be allowed to ask questions and he took the opportunity to follow up on similar lines, reports said.

The press conference came days after the Financial Times reported that Murdoch sat in on the construction mogul’s interview with the Times of London, also owned by News Corp. This was said to be a sign of the duo’s close relationship.

Although Murdoch’s Fox News faced some friction with Trump’s camp during the early parts of the presidential campaign, things smoothed over after Fox’s star presenter Megyn Kelly left the network and was replaced by Tucker Carlson, who was reportedly handpicked by Murdoch.

Murdoch also shares a personal relationship with Trump’s family with the president’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump having served as a trustee for shares belonging to Murdoch’s two daughters, Grace and Chloe, in 21st Century Fox and News Corp. While Ivanka resigned from the position late last year, her husband and White House adviser Jared Kushner remains a confidant of media mogul Murdoch, according to reports.