- Rupert Murdoch is 93 years old. When he dies, control of News Corp — including Fox News — goes equally to his four children, James, Lachlan, Prudence and Elisabeth. In 2020, James resigned from the company in disgust at Fox airing conspiracy theories and fake news. When his father passes, he may press the board to reform the news channel, according to a new interview.
When Rupert Murdoch dies, his son James and his sisters may move to reform Fox News to prevent it from spreading false information or unfounded conspiracy theories, according to a lengthy series of interviews James Murdoch gave to McKay Coppins for The Atlantic.
Fox has already paid $787 million to settle a defamation case after it broadcast unfounded allegations that the 2020 U.S. presidential vote was manipulated by Dominion Voting Systems, a company that makes voting machines. A second lawsuit related to Smartmatic is still pending.
James and his siblings — Lachlan, Prudence, and Elisabeth — will inherit joint control of News Corp when Rupert Murdoch, 93, dies.
The elder Murdoch had attempted to give Lachlan sole control of the company after his death, because Lachlan is most aligned with his father’s right-wing politics. However, a lawsuit in Reno probate court was resolved in favor of the other three siblings, who successfully defended the irrevocable trust that Rupert had created years ago that divides the empire equally between the four children.
That means Lachlan would be outnumbered by James and the other children if James wants to change Fox News in such a way that makes it less extreme, according to Coppins:
James and [his wife] Kathryn were usually cautious when I asked about changes they would want to see at the family’s news outlets. But I got glimpses of their thinking. Once, over dinner in Washington, Kathryn told me she wasn’t sure if Fox News could still be reformed. “It doesn’t have a clear purpose in the ecosystem anymore,” she said.
… The one thing James has said consistently is that any reforms he might seek would focus on corporate and editorial governance, not political orientation. Fox News, he thought, could still report from a conservative perspective without, say, giving a platform to unqualified doctors to spread medical misinformation during a pandemic, or misrepresenting an oil-company shill as an expert on climate change.”
Fortune contacted representatives of James Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for comment. There was no response from the company and a representative for James declined comment.
James and Rupert have barely spoken in years, according to the Atlantic article. James split from his father and resigned from the company in 2020 after he became frustrated with Fox and Sky Australia pushing climate change denial. “If lying to your audience is how you juice ratings,” James told The Atlantic, “a good culture wouldn’t do that.”
