(New York) A court in the western United States in Nevada on Monday heard a succession dispute between the powerful and controversial media mogul Rupert Murdoch and four of his children, a case with far-reaching implications for the future of the media empire.
Despite the request of a coalition of American media including the New York Timeswhich broke the story, CNN and public radio station NPR, the hearings are being held behind closed doors before a probate commissioner in a Reno court.
American television showed Rupert Murdoch, 93, arriving at the courthouse on the arm of his fifth wife, Elena Zhukova.
At the centre of this battle is his plan to change the terms of the family trust to give his eldest son Lachlan control of his empire, including the News Corporation groups (Wall Street Journal, New York Post in the United States, The Sun in the UK, The Australian) and Fox Corporation (Fox News).
In a scenario worthy of the series Successionpartly inspired by the family history, three other children of Rupert Murdoch, James, Prudence and Elisabeth, challenged this plan, because the trust originally provided equal voting rights for all four descendants.
PHOTO ANDY BARRON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lachlan Murdoch is to take control of the Murdoch empire upon his father’s death, under amended terms of the family trust.
For many observers, the affair will have serious implications for the future of the empire left by Rupert Murdoch, accused of having, through some of his newspapers and television channels, encouraged the rise of populism in Anglo-Saxon countries, symbolised by Brexit in the United Kingdom and the rise of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States in 2016.
The American channel Fox News, at the forefront of the ideological battles of American conservatives, has been accused of feeding disinformation on anti-COVID-19 vaccines and of having amplified allegations of a supposedly rigged presidential election in 2020 in the United States to the detriment of Donald Trump.
Disinformation
In April 2023, Fox News had to agree to pay the staggering sum of $787.5 million to the manufacturer of electronic voting machines Dominion Voting Systems, at the center of Trumpist conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, and which the channel had echoed.
A month and a half before the presidential election, the columnists who host Fox News in the evening are still resolutely pro-Trump and are lampooning Democrat Kamala Harris, sometimes in a virulent tone.
Lachlan Murdoch is considered to be closer to the populist and conservative line of his father, who has already handed over to him in the fall of 2023 to lead News Corp and Fox Corporation, while his three siblings are considered more centrist.
Thus, James Murdoch, who left News Corp in 2020, officially gave his support to Kamala Harris.
PHOTO ANDY BARRON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
James Murdoch (with glasses) is said to be more politically centre-right than his brother Lachlan.
According to the New York Timeswho had access to excerpts from the file, Rupert Murdoch’s lawyers “argued that he was trying to protect James, Elisabeth and Prudence by ensuring that they would not be able to moderate Fox’s policies or disrupt its operations through incessant leadership struggles.”
In a preliminary ruling, the probate commissioner did not oppose a modification of the trust, but he must hear arguments from all parties during a seven-day hearing, the court said. He will then make recommendations that are not expected to be made public, the court told AFP.
News Corp, which is estimated to have a turnover of more than ten billion dollars in 2023, is also present in publishing with HarperCollins, as well as real estate listings.