Comment on this storyComment
When Rupert Murdoch formally hands over the reins of his media empire to his 52-year-old son Lachlan in November, die-hard Fox News viewers will be hard-pressed to notice any difference.
The conservative-leaning Lachlan has controlled the cable news giant’s parent company since 2019, when he was named chief executive and his more liberal brother James left the family business, seemingly putting an end to speculation about a new sensibility with the next generation of Murdochs.
“I felt that Lachlan was at least as conservative as his father,” said Preston Padden, a former Fox executive turned critic of the network (but described Lachlan as “a very nice guy” in their interactions). . back in the 1990s).
In his note to Fox employees Thursday announcing his resignation, Rupert Murdoch described Lachlan as “a passionate, principled leader” and ideological descendant of his own late father, Keith Murdoch, who founded the family’s media business. “My father was a strong believer in freedom and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause,” he wrote.
While Lachlan has donated to both Republican and Democratic campaigns, the majority of his candidate-specific donations have gone to Republicans, including a $1 million donation in November 2020 to the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund. This cycle, he made several donations in support of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), but also gave $1,500 to a political action committee created by Democrat Pete Buttigieg, according to a review of campaign finance records emerges.
More tellingly, he has shown no regrets about Fox News’ editorial direction – even after pro-Trump commentators spread baseless claims about rigging the 2020 presidential election, leading to a massive defamation lawsuit from an aggrieved voting technology company that Fox’s payment ended a record $787.5 million in severance pay.
“There is no change to our programming strategy at Fox News. It’s obviously a successful strategy,” Murdoch said that in a call with industry analysts in May, in which he defended the payout as a business decision and explained that Fox News “always operated like a news organization, covering the current events of the day.”
Lachlan Murdoch, once the ambivalent Fox heir, makes his views clear
Lachlan Murdoch grew up in the family business, spending a summer cleaning the printing presses for Sydney’s Daily Mirror and another as a young reporter for the Murdoch-owned San Antonio Express-News. “These brief immersions reinforced the sense that the young Murdoch was destined to follow his father and grandfather into the media,” wrote Australian journalist Paddy Manning in his 2022 Murdoch biography “The Successor.”
After attending prep school in New York and college at Princeton University, he returned to Australia to work in the media industry and began a long career in the media industry, traveling back and forth between his home country and the United States increasingly larger roles in the company commuted from here. He left the family business in 2005 but returned nearly a decade later, moving to Los Angeles in 2014.
If Lachlan takes full control of both Fox Corp and News Corp, where the company’s publishing assets are located, he will be forced to face both legal and strategic challenges.
Fox News is still facing a $2.7 billion lawsuit from election technology company Smartmatic, which, like Dominion, claims its reputation was damaged by comments made on the show. Fox also recently faced a false light lawsuit from Ray Epps, a Trump supporter who claims he was falsely portrayed as a government agent by Fox hosts, including Tucker Carlson, in their speculation about his activities at the rallies leading up to Jan. 6 . 2021 US Capitol insurrection. On Wednesday, Epps pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly or disruptive conduct on a limited basis.
“Lachlan’s first order of business should be to get Fox News to retract the lies that his company has spread and spread about Ray Epps,” his lawyer Michael Teter told The Washington Post. “And his second job should be to make sure Fox stops ruining people’s lives by spreading falsehoods.”
In 2021, Murdoch moved back to Australia with his family. This distance from Fox’s New York headquarters is also representative of his distance from the network’s day-to-day operations. In a statement he made in the Dominion case, Murdoch made it clear that he had delegated authority to the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, and its president, Jay Wallace.
But the reams of correspondence released as part of the discovery process in this case revealed at least one example of Murdoch interfering in the selection of broadcasts.
The Fox Corporation CEO took issue with the way two Fox News journalists, correspondent Rich Edson and anchor Leland Vittert, described the motivations of a crowd of Trump supporters who gathered in Washington after his defeat in November 2020 . In particular, he complained that Vittert adopted a “smug and obnoxious” tone.
“News people need to be careful how they cover this rally,” Murdoch wrote in a message to Scott. “The narrative should be that this is a big celebration of the president.”
Meanwhile, it’s unclear how big his father’s resignation from his companies actually is.
In his address to employees, Rupert Murdoch emphasized that he would continue to be actively involved in his new role as Chairman Emeritus. “As I visit your countries and companies, you can expect to see me in the office late Friday afternoon,” he wrote.
The elder Murdoch had previously stepped away from the company but rejoined in 2016 to take control of Fox News after the network ousted Chairman Roger Ailes, who was accused of sexual misconduct.
Fox employees and Fox watchers alike remain skeptical that Rupert Murdoch will actually step down for good.
“As far as operations go, I think he’s still the right guy,” said a veteran Fox News employee who spoke on condition of anonymity because employees are not authorized to comment. “I don’t see it as a big change.”
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management and an expert on executive succession, said Murdoch is a classic example of a corporate leader who is too invested in his company to simply say goodbye.
“I think he will step back in at regular intervals,” Sonnenfeld told The Post. “He’s too busy with his business. He has no outside hobbies.”
More style stories in the media
Check out 3 more stories