Rupert Murdoch has paid his latest, most contentious biographer, Michael Wolff, the greatest of compliments: he’s timed his resignation — with son Lachlan ascending to the throne — to spike the release of Wolff’s latest book, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty.
Until yesterday’s surprise resignation letter from Rupert, the Wolff book looked set to be the most dramatic “the emperor has no clothes” take on the Murdochs, with the extract published this week in New York Magazine concluding: “Accompanied by the wild laughter of his enemies, you have the lonely figure of 92-year-old Rupert Murdoch, now shaded by doubt, ambivalence, regret, bafflement, and the harsh and clanging voices of his children. Not the best mindset with which to hold a kingdom.”
The extract’s key takeaway (as Crikey reported on Monday) is that Fox is still struggling to deal with its embroilment in the Trump lie about the 2020 US election, despite the sacrifice of Tucker Carlson and chief legal officer Viet Dinh, the two most senior figures at the network — onscreen and off — not named Murdoch.
In response to the Wolff book, Murdoch’s letter to staff seems to splutter with a Lear-like anger. End of a dynasty? I’ll give you dynasty, he roars: “My father firmly believed in freedom, and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause.”
And fall? “Our companies are in robust health, as am I,” the 92-year-old asserts. “Our opportunities far exceed our commercial challenges. We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years — I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them.”
Wait. What was that again? Wasn’t this supposed to be a resignation letter? Certainly, that’s the way the Murdoch-owned house journal of the oligarch class — The Wall Street Journal — headlined it: “Rupert Murdoch to Step Down as Chair of Fox and News Corp After Seven-Decade Career.”
Most competitive media took the “after” as finality, grabbing the opportunity to write Rupert’s all-but obituary or to start poking into what the Lachlan story tells us about the company’s future, with The Guardian suggesting it might mark a further wind-down in the company’s interest in the UK. On Fox, itself, the presenters were like deer in the headlights, cautiously tip-toeing along the fine line that divides praise from any hint of burial.
Just in case you missed his point, Murdoch’s letter went on:
I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas… I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books [good news for Scott Morrison there] with much interest and reaching out to you with thoughts, ideas, and advice… you can expect to see me in the office late on Friday afternoon.
Sure, the Friday afternoon bit is a bit weird, but there seems to be a bit more of Lear in here than just the rhetoric.
In a life-imitates-art kind of way, the letter rhymes with what turned out (spoiler alert!) to be Logan Roy’s last speech in Succession to the staff of his fictional cable news channel ATN: “Now, anyone who believes that I’m getting out, please, shove the bunting up your ass. This is not the end. I’m going to build something better. Something faster, lighter, leaner, wilder — and I’m going to do it from in here with you lot.”
In Succession, the show’s writers dealt with the uncertainty provoked by Roy’s speech by killing the old man off. Reality doesn’t give the managers of the Murdoch changes the same flexibility.
So how much of all this is performative musical chairs and how much is a real change?
As far as titles go, Rupert has swapped his News hat of “executive chair” and his Fox hat of “chair” for, in both cases, the title of “emeritus chair” — although not until November. He’ll also be leaving his position on the boards of both News and Fox, though there’s no sign he’s giving up control of the family trust, through which the family controls the companies.
Despite the overheated rhetoric about the Lachlan succession, there’s no immediate change to the titles of the younger Murdoch, and no clear signals of any change in his actual role. According to the WSJ report, Lachlan remains “executive chair and chief executive officer” of Fox, while at News, he drops the “co-” suffix from his title as chair.
Like most CEOs, it’s not clear what Lachlan actually does. His bio on the Fox site says he has worked “to develop global strategies and set the overall corporate vision”. He was reportedly the driving force in the ultimately unsuccessful attempts to break into sports betting.
He has no managerial role in News Corp, although his meeting last year with the incoming Labor team was held in the company’s Holt Street office in Sydney.
The US sharemarket gave the resignation news a tick overnight, with shares in both companies up. Maybe that’s a vote against Rupert’s recent erratic management. Or a sniff that, as the company falls, some or all of the assets are heading for sale.
Clarification: This article has been updated to reflect that Rupert Murdoch is leaving the boards of News Corp and Fox.
