Events in a US court reveal a story that rivals HBO’s Succession with a patriarch’s waning control, sibling rivalries and a media empire at stake
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” begins Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina. This is an appropriate lens to view Rupert Murdoch’s semi-public family feud. This week, itthat the media mogul had lost the first round in his legal bid to secure his empire for Lachlan, his eldest son and anointed heir, over his other children – James, Elisabeth and Prudence.
The familial strife – driven by blurred lines between business and family, ideological clashes and a patriarch’s weakening grip – exemplifies Tolstoy’s “unique unhappiness”. The Murdochs’ conflicts are shaped by their extraordinary wealth, influence and public scrutiny. The divisions could paralyse corporate decision making, destabilising aThe battle to change the terms of the Murdochs’ irrevocable family trust is very much an internal family affair.
The trust controls the Murdoch empire, split between Fox – home to the TV news network accused of rightwing bias and false reporting as well as its broadcast and cable business – and News Corp, which owns US titles such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post; the Times and the Sun in the UK; and more than half of Australia’s biggest
At the centre of the struggle is Fox News, a $20bn media behemoth central to US conservative politics and Donald Trump’s rise. Mr Murdoch, and Lachlan, pushed Fox sharply rightward, alienating Lachlan’s siblings and leading to a $790m defamationover election falsehoods. Mr Murdoch’s younger son, James, who had been passed over in favour of Lachlan, takes the– a thinly veiled take on their own family – where a patriarch’s death sparks chaos.
Mr Murdoch will appeal, but the cost is clear: further estrangement from three of his children. Only Lachlan attended his summer wedding to hiswife. Mr Murdoch may fail to amend the trust. That would raise the stakes, posthumously. Lachlan might try to buy out his siblings; James and Elisabeth could push to reshape or dismantle Fox News. Selling assets could end tensions but dismantle the legacy Mr Murdoch built – one in which personal ambition and corporate control are entwined.
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