If you didn't know that media mogul Rupert Murdoch merely retired from the boards of Fox Corp. and News Corp., you might have assumed that he died. His announcement sent shockwaves across the information sphere, with a few outlets, including the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, styling its coverage as if it were a eulogy.
Also making headlines is Michael Wolff's soon-to-be-released book, "The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty," which has been described in terms that make it sound like the autopsy of a body bathed in gossip-steeped dishwater. It opens with a mock obituary.
Media Matters for America president Angelo Carusone swiftly provided Salon with a statement summarizing Murdoch's legacy as "one of deceit, destruction, and death."
"Wherever his media properties exist across the globe, they disregard basic journalistic practices and pump venomous misinformation into the public discourse," the statement read. "In Fox News, Murdoch created a uniquely destructive force in American democracy and public life, one that ushered in an era of division where racist and post-truth politics thrive."
In the same way that many celebrity death notices tend to be greatly exaggerated, Murdoch let his employees know in an internal letter that went public early Thursday that "our companies are in robust health, and so am I."
Murdoch also assured them that he wasn't truly going anywhere. "In my new role, I can guarantee you that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas," he stated. "I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest, and reaching out to you with thoughts, ideas, and advice."
Son and Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch dutifully echoed his father in a congratulatory statement applauding "his remarkable 70-year career."
"We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted," Lachlan said. "We are grateful that he will serve as Chairman Emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies."
Rupert is 92 years old, and if you're fond of reading the fictional tea leaves that "Succession," the HBO drama inspired by his family, left on the table, you may remember that patriarch Logan Roy strode through his newsroom and mightily roared at his reporters days before shuffling off this mortal coil. Add to this reports that Rupert may not be as healthy as he (more likely, his publicist) claims, and the funerary vibe makes sense.
The main difference between the "Succession" scenario and this one — other than the Murdochs and Fox being real — is that Rupert already placed control in the hands of Lachlan in 2019, making the eldest Murdoch son the sole chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. as dad transitions into semi-retirement in November.
Ergo, announcement notwithstanding, it's business as usual at Fox News. Until Rupert actually dies. (To be clear, in no way is this to be taken as a death wish upon the man.)
As we tumble toward the primaries, Fox News' propaganda hose will continue to pummel any constituency or legislation that doesn't fit its definition of conservatism in an attempt to falsely brand them as fascists or products of fascism. This is doubly the case under Lachlan's watch; with regard to sociocultural matters, he's considered to be even more conservative than his father. The Washington Post's coverage of a 2022 speech Lachlan gave in Sydney for the Institute of Public Affairs refers to him taking swipes at The 1619 Project, making a reference to Hunter Biden's laptop and decrying elites who purportedly reject "traditional values."
Rupert's outgoing note took a few jabs at so-called elites, as well, accusing them of having "open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class. Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth."
The Murdochs' media portfolio shrank in 2018 when Rupert sold his company's entertainment portfolio to Disney in a deal that netted the family $71 billion. What wasn't sold, including Fox News and his newspapers, came under the News Corp. umbrella. Fox's broadcasting channel was rolled into Fox Corp.
Fox News is extremely profitable for the Murdochs. For more than 20 years, it has been the top-rated channel in cable news. Rupert has a net worth of $8.3 billion, according to Bloomberg, and amassed enough power and influence through his media holdings over the last 50 years to make a game show host president in 2016.
If you're wondering whether his retirement means Fox News' opinion hosts and pundits will ease up on their extreme right-wing rhetoric, don't hold your breath. Only false claims concerning voting fraud related to the 2020 election are out of bounds — and only because Fox News' $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems put a larger dent in its coffers than expected.
The senior Murdoch's demise, however, might change that (and that's a very cautious use of the word "might").
Rupert may be stepping down from leading his two corporations, but he remains in control of the trust that governs the voting stake the family has in each of these companies. That amounts to just shy of 44% in Fox Corp. and around 40% in News Corp., according to information in annual reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Upon his death, Rupert's four votes will pass to his four oldest children from his first two marriages. This gives each an equal vote on what happens to the trust, and therefore, their part in these companies. In addition to Lachlan, this includes Prudence, James and Elisabeth Murdoch.
From there, common theories on how things shake out place Lachlan on the losing side.
Politically speaking, there's no love lost between Lachlan and James, whose liberal leanings reportedly led to his resignation from the News Corp. board in 2020.
"I reached the conclusion that you can venerate a contest of ideas, if you will, and we all do and that's important," James told New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd at the time. "But it shouldn't be in a way that hides agendas. A contest of ideas shouldn't be used to legitimize disinformation. And I think it's often taken advantage of. And I think at great news organizations, the mission really should be to introduce fact to disperse doubt — not to sow doubt, to obscure fact, if you will."
There's also some question as to whether Lachlan truly wants the job. Gabriel Sherman, who wrote "The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News – and Divided a Country," shared his analysis in Vanity Fair that Rupert's business heir "is seen by many to be less engaged than his father." Lachlan lives in Sydney, Sherman points out, and let Fox Corp.'s chief legal officer Viet Dinh run the business in his stead. With Dinh stepping down at the end of the year, the new chairman will have some decisions to make.
Elisabeth, meanwhile, is thought to provide some of the pattern from which "Succession" creator Jesse Armstrong assembled Shiv Roy, though her record of deals in the media world reveals she has a higher IQ. (Her company, Sister Pictures, has a production credit on HBO's limited series "Chernobyl," for example.) And, like James, she's reportedly no fan of Fox News.
As for where Prudence's preference lies, who knows?
Wolff, whose 2008 book "The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch" afforded him a level of access to Rupert and his family that few, if any other journalists have gotten since, believes that James intends to take over Fox News and reshape it into a right-of-center response to CNN and MSNBC.
Given how profitable Fox News is in its current form, such a move would either be an absolute folly or the type of suicide mission that only someone with a healthy personal net worth would dare to take up.
But if, like their father, the color all the siblings agree on is green, the more likely solution is that the network will be sold off so they can exit the ailing cable business, which is in freefall as streaming assumes dominance.
All this is guesswork, some of it informed by insights from sources like Wolff and Brian Stelter, who have covered Fox extensively, and some spun from pure speculation.
Wolff's new volume, like the recent Elon Musk tome by Walter Isaacson, is already being greeted with the warning that he may not be the most reliable narrator. But unless Lachlan is hiding something up his sleeve, which is entirely possible, its title may not be prescient as much as it is a matter of common sense.
None of this matters as long as Rupert remains in the background — semi-retired, not expired. Only when the latter occurs will this be a family drama worth watching closely. And that finale may change the face of news as we know it.
