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Rupert Murdoch's son James has condemned American media outlets for unleashing "profound damage" on the United States and being complicit in the events that led to the pro-Trump insurgency in Washington earlier this month.

The junior Murdoch, who left his father's News Corporation last year citing disagreements over editorial content, said the storming of the Capitol was "proof positive that what we thought was dangerous is indeed very, very much so".

"Those outlets that propagate lies to their audience have unleashed insidious and uncontrollable forces that will be with us for years," he told London's Financial Times newspaper. "I hope that those people who didn't think it was that dangerous now understand, and that they stop."

He did not directly mention News Corporation or Fox News, the company's vociferous cable news channel now run by brother Lachlan Murdoch as chief executive and executive chairman.

James Murdoch has long expressed more progressive views than his father Rupert or older brother Lachlan, especially on the issue of climate change. He and his wife Kathryn each donated more than US$615,000 to Joe Biden's campaign for the presidency last year.

Following the Financial Times interview, Mr Murdoch and his wife released a statement taking aim at disinformation and those who spread it deliberately.

"Spreading disinformation – whether about the election, public health or climate change – has real world consequences," they wrote in the statement also reported by the FT.

"Many media property owners have as much responsibility for this as the elected officials who know the truth but choose instead to propagate lies.

"We hope the awful scenes we have all been seeing will finally convince those enablers to repudiate the toxic politics they have promoted once and forever."

Mr Murdoch also told the newspaper he believed there would be "a reckoning" for the news media industry, which was "being co-opted by forces that only want to stay in power".