Dem
47
GOP
53
Rupert Murdoch still rules the roost at Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, and his hundreds of other media properties around the world. He is mentally sharp and active. However, he is also 93 years old. He is well aware of that. In fact, even at age 68 he was aware that in any battle with Father Time, Father Time always wins, eventually. Knowing that, in 1999, Murdoch and his lawyers made a succession plan for his media empire. The plan has now been called into question by his heirs (his children) and they are all enmeshed in a very messy secret court fight. Somehow, The New York Times just obtained over 3,000 pages of court documents about the case.
Two investigative reporters, Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg, have written a very long article based on those documents. If you have a Times subscription and are interested in the future of Fox, read the article. For the benefit of readers who don't have the Times or the time to read a very long and detailed article, with many twists and subplots, here is a very brief summary of it. The case is important because it affects the control of Fox after the 93-year-old Murdoch goes to the big propaganda mill in the sky.
Murdoch always intended to give his empire to his kids, but it is a bit complicated because he has been married five times and has six kids by wives 1, 2, and 3. Here is his family tree:
During her 1999 divorce proceedings, wife #2, Anna Maria Torv, was willing to give up half of Murdoch's marital assets in return for a promise that upon his death, all of Murdoch's assets would pass to his (then) four children, three of whom were her children. The way the promise was enforced was to create a Nevada trust (because Nevada estate law provides a lot of secrecy), with her three children, Elisabeth, Lachlan, and James, plus her stepchild, Prudence, as the four beneficiaries of the trust. The trust is set up to continue as the sole owner of all the company stock until 2030, at which time each of the (now six) beneficiaries will inherit a pro-rata share of the stock and will be free to sell it to the highest bidder. The companies in the trust are worth $7 billion. The trust is set up so that each of the four oldest kids gets to name one trustee and Murdoch gets to name two trustees—as long as he lives.
Over time, Murdoch decided that his mission in life was to create the most powerful voice for conservatives in the English-speaking world, even after his death. He also decided that only Lachlan was conservative enough to carry out his mission. But he also realized that when he died, there would be only four trustees and if the liberal Prudence, Elisabeth, and James got together, they could order their trustees to vote to fire Lachlan as CEO of Fox and install their own CEO. The three of them know that the average Fox viewer is a 68-year-old white man, and might well want to tone it down to attract younger, more diverse, and more liberal viewers, just from a business perspective. Murdoch didn't want it to be toned down.
So Murdoch tried to change the irrevocable trust in a complex way that would protect Lachlan's position as a prima inter pares. The billionaire was clever enough to put a provision in the original trust to allow him to make changes afterwards if it was in the interest of the beneficiaries. He asked Torv's three children if they were fine with him stripping them of their voting rights (but not of their economic rights). Oddly enough, they were not. Elisabeth said: "You are completely disenfranchising me and my siblings. You've blown a hole in the family." When Murdoch tried anyway, the three sued their father in a Nevada court.
By Nevada law, the trial, held last September, was secret. It was heard by Washoe County Probate Commissioner Edmund Gorman, who placed everything under seal. Murdoch argued that stripping three of his children of their voting rights was in the interest of the children. However, the three children disagreed in court. They said that picking trustees wasn't so much of a burden that they couldn't do it. In Dec. 2024, Gorman filed his decision in withering terms. Changing the trust to disenfranchise three of the four beneficiaries was definitely not a benefit for them. He refused Murdoch's request to allow any changes. He also concluded that Murdoch was operating in bad faith because he had willfully suppressed evidence that shot a hole in his arguments.
Murdoch has appealed, of course. However, there is little reason to think Gorman's decision will be overturned since Gorman fully understood the significance of the case and was very careful to go by the book and not make any legal mistakes.
If his decision is upheld on appeal, one of two things will happen. If Murdoch dies before 2030, then Prudence, Elisabeth, and James will have the power to replace Lachlan as CEO with a new CEO who would be chosen to get rid of some of the more obnoxious hosts, tone the rest down, and try to broaden the audience, even if it means losing some hard-core viewers. Fox would still probably lean conservative, but less strident and more truth-based, to avoid lawsuits. It could focus more on getting Mitt Romney- and Liz Cheney-type Republicans to watch. Just viewed as a business, catering only to very angry old white men might not be the future. Also, they could sell off all the newspapers and divvy up the proceeds.
By contrast, if Murdoch is still alive in 2030, when he will be 99, then the trust self-dissolves and each of the four plus Murdoch's two daughters with wife #3 (who have no voting rights) gets equal shares in the corporations. They would be free to sell their shares to the highest bidder (or an ideologically friendly company).
This is only a summary. There is a lot more intrigue with much deceit and backstabbing, involving former AG William Barr and a host of others. But the bottom line is that if Murdoch exits stage right before 2030, there will be big changes at Fox. It is not inconceivable that James might replace Lachlan as CEO of Fox. If old Rupert hangs on until 2030, the companies could be broken up and sold for parts. (V)