Rupert MurdochThe three adult children will retain control of their father’s media after his death, a Nevada court ruled after Murdoch’s campaign to strip him of his control and give everything to his eldest son.
The New York Times announced A court order citing Murdoch’s damages was filed on Saturday. The family fought out of public view, despite attempts by the media to gain access to the trial.
Murdoch took his three grown children, James, Elizabeth and Prudence, to court in an attempt to completely remove Murdoch’s voting power over the trust. The current structure of the trust gives all four adult children equal voting power over Murdoch’s government, which includes Fox News and News Corp, but Murdoch wanted to give Lachlan, his eldest son and favorite child, complete control over the media companies. The change would only affect the voting power of non-financial siblings.
After reviewing the case, Nevada Commissioner Edmund Gorman concluded that Rupert et Lachlan Murdoch He had acted in “bad faith” in his attempts to change the terms of the irrevocable trust that divides control of the company between the four Murdoch sons.
The 96-page opinion lambasted the media mogul, according to the Times, accusing him of organizing “a carefully crafted charade” in order to “permanently strengthen the executive role of Lachlan Murdoch” within the government “incursions that would have such power in companies or beneficiaries” of the family trust.
Representatives for Murdoch did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Adam Streisand, one of Murdoch’s lawyers, told the Times that Murdoch plans to appeal the decision. Lawyers for James, Elisabeth and Prudentia have not spoken publicly about the trial.
Once the Commissioner has issued his decision for the case, it will be up to the district judge in the trial court to make the final decision.
The ruling revealed that Lachlan threw the first chance. Murdoch and his eldest son are said to have called the trust “Project Harmony” in an attempt to change it, with the latter believing he could see the prospect of a power struggle within the family after his death. But his other sons were apparently blinded by the movement.
Murdoch worked with high-profile legal experts on the case. Streisand has been involved in the controversies of several celebrities, including Michael Jackson and Britney Spears. Former attorney general William Barr also supported Murdoch’s efforts to rewrite the trust.
If the view holds, it is likely to have a major impact on the future of the growing right-wing media, which includes Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Times and The Sun in the UK and Australia.
Murdoch, 93, is more politically aligned with Lachlan’s heir apparent. James, Elizabeth and Prudence are considered less conservative and James, in particular, publicly criticized the denial of the climate in the media and was accused of “spreading lies” that “insidious and insurmountable forces” had risen after the 6th of February. James has resigned from his role as a senior executive at News Corp. in 2020. The same year he and his wife given $600,000 to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
Meanwhile, Lachlan, who took over the chair of the News Corps in 2023, has privately voiced public opinion similar to his father and these attached has seen growth in ratings and sales of government media since Trump took office in 2015, according to several reports.
Fox’s revenue for fiscal 2024, which ended in the summer, was close to $14bn. It is a cable news show in the US and has received a bump in viewership and influence since the first election of Donald Trump in 2016.
Robert Thompson, a middle-class scholar based at Syracuse University, said that even after losing the judges, the Murdochs can cling to the right-wing business model thanks to them.
“The fox model worked very well,” Thompson said. Even though all the siblings shared power, they all still think about the bottom line of the company.
“This is such a successful business model that anything that disrupts the steady course would be bad for everyone,” added Thompson. “I’m not entirely convinced that these future Murdochs can really turn around the behemoth that Father has created.”