The news was read soberly on Thursday on the air of Fox News, the favorite channel of American conservatives.
A page is turning for Anglo-Saxon conservatives. Rupert Murdoch, the feared media mogul who influenced political life in the United Kingdom and the United States, will let go of the reins of his media empire. At 92, he will hand over to his son Lachlan at the head of the News Corp media group and Fox Corporation. The news, announced in a press release from the two companies, was read soberly on the air of Fox News, the favorite channel of American conservatives. The journalist greeted the‘”indelible imprint” of his boss on the “global media landscape”.
Rupert Murdoch to step down as Chairman of Fox Corporation and Global News Corp to become Chairman “skilled”from the next general meeting of shareholders of the two companies in mid-November.
Unsurprisingly, he leaves the controls to his son Lachlan, 52, already president of Fox Corporation and favorite to take over from his siblings, James, Prudence and Elisabeth, in a race for the inheritance that inspired the series American television Succession. In the press release, Lachlan Murdoch congratulates his father “for his 70 years of remarkable career”greeting his “pioneering spirit, his unwavering determination”her “lasting legacy” and saying to count on his “valuable advice”.
Accelerator of the rise of populism?
Rupert Murdoch leaves a controversial legacy. Via his newspapers and television channels, he is accused of having favored the rise of populism in Anglo-Saxon countries, symbolized by Brexit in the United Kingdom and the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States in 2016.
In a note to his “colleagues” of Fox, Rupert Murdoch assures them that “the battle for freedom of speech, and ultimately freedom of thought, has never been more intense”. In his usual style, the patriarch castigates “bureaucracies”, “the elite [qui] openly despise those who are not part of their disconnected class”, as well as “most media [qui] are in cahoots with these elites, peddling political narratives rather than seeking the truth.”.
However, the American channel Fox News has been accused of fueling disinformation about anti-Covid vaccines and allegations of fraud to the detriment of Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election in the United States. This media coverage earned him a very hefty bill. Fox News agreed in April to pay the staggering sum of $787.5 million to electronic voting machine manufacturer Dominion Voting Systems, at the center of Trumpist conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, and whose channel had echoes.