Rupert Murdoch Consoled Sean Spicer After Hitler-Comment Outrage

The Fox News Channel chief also phones President Donald Trump every week, according to a 'New York Times' report.

Fox News chief Rupert Murdoch's close ties with President Donald Trump were put on display when White House press secretary Sean Spicer found himself in the hot seat earlier this month, a New York Times report published Saturday morning reveals.

The media mogul, who calls Trump every week to "commiserate and plot strategy," went so far as to console Spicer over the phone after he faced widespread backlash for his controversial comments on Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust.

Spicer came under fire after saying that Hitler did not use chemical weapons during a press briefing, while addressing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons on those within his country.

Spicer has since apologized for his comments, admitting, "Part of existing is understanding that when you do something wrong, if you own up to it, you do it. You let people know, and I did."

"It's painful to myself to know that I did something like that because that obviously was not my intention, and to know when you screw up that you possibly offended a lot of people," he said during a Newseum forum. "So I would ask for folks' forgiveness, to understand that I should not have tried to make a comparison. There's no comparing atrocities, and this is a very solemn time for so many folks that this is part of that."

Murdoch has had tight-knit relations with Trump since the former reality TV star covered numerous front pages of the New York Post. His Fox News Channel supported Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign.