Who will rule the Murdoch family empire? Succession war threatens to reshape global media

What will become of the Murdoch family empire? That is the question that is dividing the Murdoch family as they try to figure out what will happen after the death of mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Murdoch’s eldest son Lachlan took the reins after Murdoch stepped down as chairman of Fox and News Corps last year, but an “irrevocable” family trust exists that gives his siblings Prudence, Elizabeth and James an equal say in its future.

Now, according to a report in The New York Times, Rupert has lawyered up against Prudence, Elizabeth and James who are challenging his attempt to alter the “irrevocable” family trust to give Lachlan full control on his demise.

Though the trust is irrevocable, it carries a narrow provision for changes done in good faith and with the sole purpose of benefitting all of its members, according to CNN.

Court documents obtained by The New York Times reveal that Murdoch is arguing that handing full control to Lachlan will benefit all of the trust’s members by ensuring the value of the company.

Murdoch’s fear is that, being more politically moderate than Lachlan, the three siblings might change the political orientation of Fox News and also the News Corps which own  more than 100 newspapers, prompting profits to tumble.

Vanity Fair maintains that the family’s legal wrangle indicates that Murdoch’s influence is in decline. “Murdoch is no longer the pope,” a political commentator, told the news site.

Murdoch’s son James effectively left the company in 2020. According to Vanity Fair, James has maintained for some time that Fox News and its alliance with Donald Trump poisoned the company’s reputation.

“We’ve been arguing about politics since I was a teenager,” James told the New York Times in 2020, referring to his father. That same year, he and his wife, Kathryn, donated more than $600,000 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Fox is at the heart of the family tensions. A vehicle for pushing Murdoch’s political agenda, it crossed a line when heavyweights like Tucker Carlson told audiences that the 2020 election result was “rigged,” thanks to the voting machines.

Now, a defamation case worth $787.5 million is being brought against the company by Dominion Voting Systems and an even more damaging lawsuit, worth $2.7 billion, is in the pipeline brought by Smartmatic.

Add to that the troubles the company is weathering in the UK with British Royal, Prince Harry, heading up a small battalion of 40 plaintiffs due in court at the start of 2025.

James, Prudence and Elizabeth’s argument rests on the fact that the current ultra-conservative agenda is, in fact, damaging the company by draining its coffers.

Certainly, the battle being waged in the courts has taken a toll on family relations with only Lachlan attending his father’s California wedding in June to fifth wife, retired marine biologist, Elena Zhukova, 67.

Murdoch’s marriage to Zhukova is not expected to have any impact on the trust that holds 40% of News Corp and Fox voting shares, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Robert Thompson, a media scholar at Syracuse University, tells The Guardian “This is arguably the single most influential media outlet in all of the English-speaking world,” he said. “How this turns out has a real, significant impact on real people living on planet Earth.”

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