Will profit or confidence come first?

Every happy family is alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. And then – Leo Tolstoy could not have known this when he opened the famous “Anna Karenina” – there is the Murdoch family.

Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch has built a corporate empire spanning seven decades and three continents that is unparalleled. Several influential newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal and major tabloids, are included, as are the book publisher Harper-Collins and the right-wing television network Fox News. For decades, Murdoch, who is now 93 years old, has tried to ensure that this empire will survive him.

Success in business, disputes in the family

In this venture, the patriarch, who has shown himself to be so successful in business, has to face several problems because his children do not agree on what should become of the empire. The Murdochs are even said to have inspired the popular television series “Succession,” in which the dynasty scheme was with and against each other under the aging patriarch’s nose.

About the latest episode in the Murdochs’ early estate dispute The New York Times reported the previous week. The newspaper cites sealed court documents that show the family is currently fighting in court over the future of the company.

It is said that three of the four children from Rupert Murdoch’s first two marriages oppose their father’s desire to retain strategic control of the group solely on his eldest son, Lachlan. Lachlan is supposed to ensure that the political direction of Fox News in particular is maintained – while the other children would still benefit financially but would no longer have influence on operational decisions.

According to the Times, Rupert Murdoch argues that this is very financial for everyone involved. There should be the possibility of changes in the family trust statutes, which are essentially unchanged, if these are beneficial to everyone involved and if they are made in good faith. This is exactly what three of Murdoch’s children and their legal representatives are vehemently denying.

Influential media

It is easy to tell how the argument came about: a quarter of a century ago, Rupert Murdoch divorced his second wife, Anna, with whom he was married for 32 years and had three children. During the divorce, Murdoch set up a trust, ie a foundation under Anglo-Saxon law, in which a quarter of the children from his first two marriages were one quarter each.

After Rupert Murdoch’s death, the foundation will have de facto control over both Fox Corporation and thus the Fox News television channel as well as News Corporation through its voting rights. In addition, the family owns other properties, such as several properties. News Corporation brings together the Murdochs’ print media, notably the Wall Street Journal, which Murdoch bought in 2007, the New York Post and the British and Australian newspapers, which have significant influence in their home markets. .

Murdoch later had two children with his third wife, Wendi Deng. They have a stake in the financial success of the Murdoch companies, but have no voting rights in the trust – although their interests must also be taken into account in the legal dispute.

The family dispute is particularly moving in the English-speaking world because the Murdoch media has been very influential for decades. Murdoch, who does not necessarily seek the light himself, regarded as a man who could take politicians to the top – or make them fall.

The television network Fox News has played a special role, especially in the US. Rupert Murdoch actually wanted to buy CNN in the 1990s, but was unsuccessful. So he had Roger Ailes, a shrewd political and media manager who had supported several Republican presidential candidates since Richard Nixon founded a new television network.

It wasn’t long until Sionnach established himself as the main right-wing conservative force in the country. This was the strong, strong pressure against other networks like MSNBC, which was founded at the same time, which gave off a young techie vibe and was more on the left-liberal side. Fox News made television for all those who had little use for the “liberal elites” of the East and West Coasts. It produced cheaper than CNN, but paid princely salaries to the star presenters.

Journalist Michael Wolff, who has been with Rupert Murdoch for a long time, wrote in his latest book 2023 that the newspaper industry was closer to Murdoch than the TV world and therefore gave him a lot of freedom Ailes from day to day. – day operations. Financially he worked for a long time.

But Fox has been pursuing some controversial positions on the right, at least since the rise of Donald Trump. In doing so, the station not only divided Americans into passionate supporters and opponents – but also the family it belonged to.

According to Michael Wolff, Rupert Murdoch is an old-school conservative and therefore does not fit into the strong, brash Trump camp. But what should he, as a businessman, say about the high standards and profits that Trump and his stars at Fox – especially Sean Hannity and later Tucker Carlson – promised him?

It is said that Lachlan, the eldest of Murchaid’s two sons, took over the management of the television station, and the younger son, James – who later became known in Switzerland as an investor in the Basel trade fair – he was very surprised.

Vacuum power

In 2016, several Fox employees accused Roger Ailes of sexual harassment; the powerful leader was quickly and irrevocably thrown out of the empire he had built. Almost a year later, Ailes died. He was a highly controversial TV boss, but even his critics recognized that his sudden departure could create a leadership vacuum at Fox.

The Murdochs had different ideas about what to do with the network. In 2018 they sold a large part of the Fox empire to Disney for $71 billion, especially the famous film and TV studio 20th Century Fox.

However, the Mickey Mouse company did not want to take over Fox News itself. The television station was still a source of division for the family that owns it.

Trump exited Fox

That also had a lot to do with Donald Trump. The relationship between Fox News and the former US president is and was complicated. On the one hand, there is no doubt that Fox helped Trump win the presidency in 2016. Moderators like Hannity and Carlson unfairly represented his positions for a long time during his tenure.

But Fox had the same experience as the old guard of the Republican Party: Trump gave them success at first, but he quickly outgrew them. He became such a strong brand in the right-wing camp that he was not the one responsible for Sionnach, but the other way around.

When Fox announced Joe Biden as the winner in the state of Arizona very early in the 2020 elections, Trump fell out with the broadcaster. Later, Trump’s one-time rival Ron DeSantis found a lot of support for Fox, especially on Laura Ingraham’s main show. Several Republicans who wanted to get rid of Trump after losing the election rallied behind the Florida governor – who then clearly lost the Republican primaries.

Meanwhile, Fox and Trump kept getting closer, which brought other problems. The station jumped up when Trump developed his completely baseless theory that the voting machines in the 2020 presidential election were rigged. The manufacturer of those devices, Dominion, then sued the broadcaster for defamation. In 2023, the parties agreed to a settlement that was expensive for Murdoch: Fox News had to pay Dominion $788 million.

Not a quiet retirement

The outcome of the family dispute will affect the future direction of Fox News. If Rupert and Lachlan win, many things would probably remain the same. If they win, the group of James Murdoch’s heirs would have to think about how they wanted to change Fox News politically without causing the ratings to fall.

An agreement would be possible if one side could be paid. The foundation has so many valuable investments that none of those involved have to suffer financially. Fox Corporation has a market value of about $18 billion, News Corporation $15 billion. But for now the faces look hard. Despite his actions, patriarch Rupert Murdoch has been denied a peaceful retirement with his family.