The Murdoch family is in court for real life Succession showdown + Headlines

[Music] a listener [Music] production hi Sasha bagat with you welcome to the briefing a highly anticipated and highly secretive Court battle is getting underway in the US today billionaire media Mogul rert Murdoch is facing off against three of his children over control of two of the biggest news brands in the world at the moment ret and Lan control the trust ret controls the trust while is alive when he dies his four votes expire and then you have an instability then you have the potential for conflict between the four siblings and what Rupert is trying to do is give Lan expanded voting power an explainer of the real life succession drama in the second half of this episode first though it's time for the headlines with Helen Smith today's Wednesday the 11th of September morning Sasha we start with her horrific story today Day Out of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales where two children have been found dead by their father the boys aged 9 and 11 were discovered inside the Falconbridge home yesterday afternoon this is about as tragic as it gets uh for any police veteran uh any emergency services would turn up a it's a very tragic scene superintendent John Nelson speaking there their mother A 42-year-old was also inside the house and was found with self-inflicted wounds she was arrested and remains in hospital under police guard at the time of the recording no charges have been laid and police have launched a thorough investigation into the tragedy and have assured the public there is no threat to the community the highly anticipated US presidential debate between Donald Trump and carela Harris is happening later this morning now this is the second debate of the campaign for Trump who faced off against Joe Biden back in June and he's just a little reminder of how that played out two regular Club championships to do that you have to be quite smart and you have to be able to hit the ball a long way look I'd be happy to have a driving contest with him the re I got my handicap which when I was vice president down to a six and but by the way I told you before I'm happy to play golf if you carry your own bag yes that was two men arguing about golfing during a presidential debate what a what a show of of what was on offer there but look Biden's woeful performance did eventually lead to the president deciding he would not run in the no November election for the Democrats and Harris took over the nomination all lies will be on her today she's faced criticism for not taking more off the cuff questions preferring pre-prepared scripts at rallies so far on her campaign Trail yeah so if you do want to watch it today it's happening at 11:00 a.m. Australian Eastern Standard Time and is being broadcasted live on most Australian free to a channels and online but of course that's in the middle of the workday so if you can't watch it live don't worry we'll have a full breakdown of all the biggest moments and everything you need to know in your feed at 300 p.m. couple of little points the mics will be muted now you might remember Helen there was a bit of back and forth few weeks ago Harris's campaign seemed to want to keep mics on and live the whole time uh but in the end they went with what had been previously agreed to between Biden and Trump which was muted mics uh I think for good reason to be honest um and interestingly there will be two former Trump officials who are going to join carela Harris at the debate tonight Anthony scaramucci uh he was Donald Trump's White House communications director and also Olivia Troy who served on Trump's White House Corona virus task force both of them are expected to speak out against Donald Trump and for Harris ahead of the debate so watch out for that over now to teor leester where some 600,000 people have gathered to welcome Pope Francis in the nation's capital Dilly overnight it is the country's first papal visit in 3 5 years and it is the biggest event it's seen since its independence from Indonesia in 2002 crowds lined the street waving special flags and chanting Viva Pope Francisco as he made his way onto a $1.5 million purpose build Altar for the mass Helen now that figure is important Sasha because it's part of the $18 million the team or leester government has spent on the 3-day event while citizens have been given the 3 days off it has been met with criticism by some and this is because 42% of the country's 1.3 million people are living below the poverty line uh it's really interesting looking at images of this they're all carrying these special umbrellas as well and it's just a sea of yellow and white of these umbrellas at this special mass and the turnout is significant because around 95% of people in team or Leicester are Catholic so this is a a huge visit for them now the pope has just come from Fiji he's now in Te orer but the next stop on his tour of the Asia Pacific is Indonesia that will happen later today he'll then go to Papa New Guinea and Singapore before returning back to [Music] Rome and the itinerary for King Charles and queen Camilla's Australian tour has been revealed the pair will visit CRA and Sydney from October 18 to 23rd in their first trip down under in 6 years now some of the activities include a reception with PM Anthony albanesi and wreath laying ceremony at the Australian war memorial in Cambra there'll also be a royal Australian Navy display in Sydney and a community barbecue sausage Sizzle for Charles and Camila Charles will also tour the national Botanic Gardens in the act and have a meeting with Scientists who are researching the impact of bush fires and how they affect the environment there was a bit of discussion as to whether the tour was going to go ahead because if you remember back in February Charles was actually diagnosed with cancer and that forced him to step back from public facing duties but he has been out and about recently and media reports suggesting that he's doing well now Sasha will you be trying to get a glimpse of the pair while they're here maybe in my capacity as one of the hosts of The Briefing maybe we could do it for an episode we can just follow them around because you do you can get like press access to the tour I mean I don't know how much our listeners care about Charles and Camila standing around having a snag at uh you know community barbecue or visiting a Navy ship in Sydney Harbor I don't know if the people want it let me know I'll go I'll go follow them around for a few days I'd be more interested to see also if they get heckled what what the reaction from the Australian Public's going to be I honestly think that Australians when the Royals come we're pretty good we're pretty polite there haven't really been any Mass protests or you know you remember back to Harry and Megan when they visited back in 2018 oh my God people were obsessed and were lining the streets and we so excited so I know Charles and cam are a bit of a different flavor to Harry and Megan when they were at their Prime but yeah I think we'll be I think we'll be pretty well behaved Helen thanks so much for being here for the headlines next up it's our Deep dive explaining everything you need to know about the Murdoch family [Music] trial the real life succession fight for news corpor operation and fox Corp is about to have its day in court a two-e blockbuster trial is getting underway in Nevada today and it set to decide the fate of some of the world's most famous news Brands and who gets to control them rert Murdoch the 93-year-old media Mogul wants to give his voting power in the companies to his oldest son Lan effectively stripping That Power from his three other children and if you are a fan of the series this all might sound very similar to the hit TV drama succession Murdoch's children Elizabeth prudence and James are fighting this move in court it is a bloody family fight for control of one of the most powerful media brands in the world what will be revealed in the trial and how on Earth did we get here Patty Manning is an award-winning journalist and author who knows a whole lot about rert Murdoch and his Empire and he joins me now Patty welcome to the briefing to start us off can you explain to us who the main players are in this legal fight and why it is such a big deal what's going on is that the murder medor Empire which includes Fox and news corporation and in Australia that means that news corporation owns fox tail at the Australian and a bunch of tabloid newspapers that is controlled by a thing called the Murdoch Family Trust uh which owns roughly 40% of the voting shares in both Fox and news corporation and that is the vehicle through which rert Murdoch and his children have controlled the uh Murdoch meteor Empire for decades and what's going on here is that is you have to understand the structure of the trust the trust has eight votes rert Murdoch who's now 93 um and who built the company over the last 70 years uh has four votes his four Elder children uh from his first two marriages Prudence uh Elizabeth Lan and James each have one vote and so at the moment ret and Lan control the trust ret controls the trust while he's alive when he dies his four votes expire and then you have an instability then you have the potential for conflict between the four siblings and what ruper is trying to do is give Lan who is right now uh the executive chairman of news corporation and fox Corporation as well as being chief executive of fox corporation uh to give him expanded voting power uh so that he has unsalable control of the Murdoch Family Trust now you can't just amend the terms of the trust you have everyone has to agree and that's why ret called it project Harmony uh because he wanted everyone to agree um that the best person um and the only person of his children who should run this Empire is Lan and he put a proposal to all the kids to amend the trust and they uh the three siblings Lan's three siblings jacked up they said they didn't agreed to a unilateral expansion of Lan's voting power and they're headed to court next week in Nevada where the trust is domiciled that was an excellent succinct summary thank you so much for breaking it Down For Us in the most plain language possible because obviously it is very complicated once you're working in family trusts and things like that as well because this case has been shrouded in such secrecy which we will get to I'm curious to know your perspective rert called it project Harmony do we think think that is the genuine motivator behind trying to get Lan uh all the voting power in the trust what Rupert is arguing uh is that the value the economic value of the assets of the trust which is you know their shares in Fox and news corporation will be greatly reduced by a potential argument that he sees around the corner once he dies so you know the siblings uh have a different view of the world to LAN and to rupit they are much more politically moderate and they would uh rupit fears and lock them fears Mass well change the editorial stance of the media assets like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal and the Australian here and and that would reduce its economic value so rubet is arguing that it's in the interests of all of the beneficiaries of the trust including the siblings who disagree with him but he says it's in their interest because only Lan will will maintain the con center right or conservative editorial position of those medor assets and that will ensure that they maintain their economic value so he's he's kind of arguing that even though James and prudence and Elizabeth are objecting to a relative diminution of their voting power um it is still in their interest uh for Lan to be in charge because he's the only one that is going to keep the businesses on their current you know editorial in terms of their kind of politics um keep them conservative and keep them making money now for people who haven't seen succession I'm a big fan of succession and you know it played out with you know businesses and internal fighting between family members about who gets to control what company now what we did see in succession was the real life human real well real life for the show for the show world uh was the relationships between the siblings and their dad which while uh complicated was also probably genuine for a lot of it do we know much about what the relationship is like between rert and his children behind closed doors when they are just being a family and they're not fighting over medeor Empires well rubben has been traditional I mean over the you know over his very long life an affectionate father and he at one point did have all three of the um children from his second marriage you know Lan Les and James all working in the business he always wanted a successor to come from one of them he um yeah by all accounts is an affectionate doting father and this has been a loving family but right now A Move by ruper and Lan to kind of expand Lan's voting power um has divided the family deeply and you know to an extent the divisions are political but I think this has gone beyond politics and it's really about uh ruper and Lan trying to alter a trust which was established you know the terms of this trust were established in the wake of riper's divorce from Anam Murdoch in 1999 and as I understand the way the siblings see this dispute this attempt to amend the Family Trust now is going back on the intentions uh of riet and Anna when they divorced and and struck the agreement that that set up this trust uh the way it's set up in the first place why is this legal battle cloaked in so much secrecy and what are the odds that the public will ever find out what actually goes on in that courtroom well these proceedings actually kicked off uh in December as I uh I think according to the filings that we've seeing coming through now in December last year but nobody knew the existence of this dispute until the New York Times broke a story at the end of July revealing that these proceedings were underway and that it headed to trial uh and quoting from a 48 page court order and by the probate commissioner in Nevada which said that Rupert was entitled to argue that the trust could be amended if the amendment was in good faith and if it was done in the in the best interests of all beneficiaries and that was a bombshell story uh the only publication in the world as I understand it that has this document uh is the New York Times none of us the rest of us don't don't have it but now we have an argument going on this week in in kind of preliminary hearings uh in Nevada as to whether or not these proceedings should be opened up to the public so there's a group called our Nevada judges which is a legal transparency nonprofit advocacy group uh that are challenging uh the secrecy orders uh and so too um in a recent application last week the New York Times CNN NPR Associated Press and a bunch of other media organizations or who are all arguing that the public has a constitutional right of access uh in civil proceedings I think that it is unlikely that the proceedings will be opened up to the public and if they are going to be opened up to the public bearing in mind this is the First Trust case where um our Nevada judges has challenged the secrecy um if they are going to be opened up to the public I think it increases the likelihood that we'll get some kind of settlement because I don't think any members of the Mur family would want a media circus given the sensitivity and the inherently personal nature of the proceedings that you know they're about to embark on in its response the lawyers for Lan and uh ruper mck are arguing that the media organizations uh that are applying for Access are in fact competitors of fox and news corporation and so why should they be given um access to the inner workings of the Murdoch meteor Empire which is inevitably going to be discussed in these Court proceedings and I think uh there is every chance that the proceedings will remain sealed because that is a big reason of why um so many family trusts as I understand it are are registered in Nevada in the first place is that it is um a relatively secret jurisdiction interesting so we may never really know what goes on behind those closed doors Patty before we let you go why should regular people care about this isn't it just a bunch of rich people fighting over making more money it is more than that you know because the Murdoch media is probably diminished from when it was you know it spanned the globe it acrossed five continents it reached three quarters of the world's population you know at the beginning of this Century now it is a smaller operation and the Legacy cable television and newspaper businesses are challenged and probably don't have the influence that they used to have but they still uh Fox News is the most is the dominant cable news channel in America and this is one of the most powerful uh media outlets in the world in Australia we have the most concentrated media Market in the world and uh news corporation owns as I said foxt and two-thirds of our newspaper circulation so the company has a huge influence uh politically and culturally uh in this country and overseas and what is being disputed if you like uh in Nevada uh will affect the direction the future editorial direction of that very powerful media Empire and that does affect all of us and particularly heading into this most consequential US presidential election potentially In Our Lifetime uh where the future of US democracy is on the ballot the role that Fox News might play in the coming election on November 6th is going to be crucial and the question is whether we're going to see a repeat of what we saw in 2020 when you know the legitimacy of the election result was undermined uh by you know baseless stolen election claims coming out of the Trump campaign and are we going to see a repeat of that uh in 2024 and I think that these proceedings do have a bearing on whether and the extent to which you know Fox News covers this election and the election result fairly and truthfully so big impacts then Patty thank you so much for taking the time to explain to us the Muro family drama as it stands I'm sure we'll be talking about it again in the future I appreciate your time no problem thank you very much journalist Patty Manning speaking with me there thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Briefing that is it for now before you go we'd love it if you could share this up with someone you think might enjoy it and don't forget to keep up with us on socials we are on instagrram at the briefing podcast also check us out on Tik Tok and YouTube search listener Newsroom and we'll be back in your feed with another EP this afternoon from 3 I'm Sasha Barat see next time listener