AAn elderly billionaire wages war against his adult children over the future of his media empire. His only ally is his eldest son, crowned head of his father’s company after years of bitter fighting with his siblings.
In choosing a successor, the patriarch is sidelining three of his other children, who remain a threat: when he dies, they will each have as much power as the eldest son to shape his businesses, potentially running counter to the right-wing ideologies that have guided them for decades.
Out of the public eye, he makes a dramatic decision. To give his eldest son control, the tycoon quietly launches an extraordinary attempt to alter the trust fund that is to give the other three influence upon his death. But they are prepared to fight.
It may sound akin to HBO’s Succession, but it’s life imitating art – which, in turn, imitated life.
Rupert Murdoch, 93, the billionaire owner of News Corp and Fox Corporation who inspired the series, is trying to give his eldest son, Lachlan, full control of his media outlets after his death. While his other adult children – James, Elisabeth and Prudence – will still receive equal shares of the companies’ profits, that would leave them with no say over the companies after his death.
This battle is actually bigger than anything presented in Succession, according to Robert Thompson, a media expert at Syracuse University. “This is arguably the most influential media outlet in the entire English-speaking world,” he said of News Corp and Fox. “The outcome of this battle will have a real and significant impact on real people living on planet Earth.”
News Corp owns more than 100 local and major newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the United States, and the Times and the Sun in the United Kingdom. Fox is the parent company of Fox News, the leading conservative cable channel in the United States, which has millions of viewers.
The Murdochs’ legal battle had been going on in secret for months until it came to light Wednesday. The New York Times reported a ruling by a Nevada probate commissioner, which is under seal, that Murdoch can rewrite his family’s irrevocable trust if he can prove the change is made in good faith and benefits his heirs.
The ruling sets the stage for a high-profile trial over the future of his many media interests, with Murdoch and his three children set to face off in court in September.
According to the Times, both sides have hired high-profile lawyers. William Barr, the former U.S. attorney general, is helping Murdoch rewrite the trust, and he has also hired Adam Streisand, a trial lawyer who previously worked on estate cases involving Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.
The feud appears to have taken a toll on the family. When Rupert married his fifth wife in California last month, Lachlan was reportedly the only one of his four eldest children to attend the ceremony. The other two also reportedly avoided the ceremony.
With Lachlan as his father’s successor, Fox News and News Corp will continue to be a conservative force. But under the trust’s current structure, the other three siblings, who are seen as more politically moderate, can push back.
Murdoch seems keen to avoid that possibility. Conservatism has been the backbone of his empire since its inception. It has proven remarkably profitable.
Although Murdoch had managed to build relationships with powerful conservative figures in Australia and the United Kingdom, it was only with Donald Trump’s rise to power that he established close ties to the White House. Although Fox initially disdained Trump, the network quickly transformed itself into his most powerful mouthpiece. In return, Murdoch had direct access to the commander in chief.
Not all of Murdoch’s children were happy about this situation. Under Trump’s presidency, Elizabeth, Prudence and James began to distance themselves from their father’s policies.
When longtime Fox CEO Roger Ailes left the company in 2016 amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment, James reportedly thought he could give the network a new direction by bringing in an experienced, less ideological leader. Instead, Murdoch took over as chairman himself.
In the summer of 2020, James, a former News Corp executive, announced he was resigning from the board due to “disagreements over certain editorial content.” He and his wife, Kathryn, have been particularly vocal about the climate crisis and appeared to resent the climate denialism of Fox News and News Corp.
“We’ve been talking politics since I was a teenager,” James told the Times in 2020 of his father. In 2020, James and his wife donated more than $600,000 to Biden’s campaign.
Murdoch eventually crowned Lachlan as his successor. While Lachlan doesn’t speak publicly about his personal political views, reports indicate that they are generally more conservative than his father’s. And while Lachlan seems less interested than his father in political influence, he does care about profit. And Trump has been profitable.
After Trump’s 2020 defeat, his relationship with the network soured. Fox News announced that Joe Biden had won the election, despite accusations of Trump’s interference. “Very sad to see this happen,” Trump tweeted at the time. “But they forgot what made them successful, what got them here. They forgot the goose that laid the golden eggs.”
What’s good for ratings is good for Fox’s business, and what’s good for business is good for Murdoch’s heirs — that’s what the judge is looking for when he grants Murdoch the ability to modify the irrevocable trust.
“The real question is, can you prove what’s in the best interest of the company or can you prove that something else is in the best interest of the company,” said Zachary Kramer, dean of Elon University’s law school and an expert on trusts and estates law. “Rupert Murdoch’s position will be, ‘We want to make decisions that are in the best interest of the company, because if the company does well, the beneficiaries are better off.’”
James, Elisabeth, and Prudence can allege that supporting Trump hasn’t been very beneficial for the network. In 2021, Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network after Trump allies within the network said the voting equipment company was involved in a conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.
Fox News eventually settled with Dominion for $787.5 million, though that was small change compared to the company’s overall revenue of $14.9 billion in its 2023 fiscal year.
Over the past year, relations between Trump and Fox appear to have cooled. Trump has been calling viewers more frequently, and the network held a town hall meeting with him earlier this year.
The Murdoch family’s influence has shifted in recent years, with new media players emerging, such as Newsmax, and other influential billionaires courting Trump, such as Elon Musk, owner of X, who is pouring millions into Trump’s campaign.
Murdoch himself was largely seen at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this month. “There was a time when the way to survive in the Republican Party was to kneel to him or to others,” Donald Trump Jr. said at an event at the convention. “I don’t think that’s the case today.”