Rupert Murdoch’s succession problem

A Nevada court has delivered “a delicious end-of-season plot twist” to the Murdoch family “soap opera”, said Crikey (Australia). In a sealed decision released last weekend, a probate commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to alter the terms of a family trust to leave his older son, Lachlan – who shares his right-wing agenda – in control of the media empire, while stripping three of his other children of their voting rights. The commissioner found that the patriarch and his chosen heir had acted in “bad faith” in trying to force through the change. The decision is “a resounding victory” for siblings Prudence, Elisabeth and James Murdoch after a “bitter legal dispute”, said the FT. But it may not be over yet. Murdoch, 93, plans to appeal.

This was a case of reality imitating art, said Athena Stavrou in The Independent. According to court documents obtained by The New York Times, the Murdoch children began planning a strategy for their father’s eventual death after watching an episode of HBO’s “Succession”, inspired partly by the Murdochs, which showed “chaos erupting within Logan Roy’s media dynasty”. In the ensuing deeply contentious feud over the future of the empire, which spans several continents and includes such powerful outlets as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, Lachlan instigated the plan to change the trust – named “Project Family Harmony” – in mid-2023. Agreeing to it was perhaps “the last manoeuvre of Murdoch’s seven-decade career”, said DealBook in The New York Times. He may have feared a “corporate coup” after his death, even though the three other children said they had no intention of ousting their brother from his managing roles at Fox News and News Corp, which owns the newspapers.