Murdoch locked in legal battle with his children over who will control his media empire | The World

in September last year Rupert Murdoch resigned um as chairman uh and sort of the leading driving force of the company that he's run for for 70 years uh and he handed over ostensibly to his oldest son Lan Murdoch so Lan was the anointed successor but there's always been this question mark about the future of him as its leader and also the future of the company because the way that the Murdoch Family Trust is set up uh and has been since the '90s is that there's four votes for ruper and one each for his four oldest children so Lan uh Prudence Elizabeth and James uh but although Rupert had anointed Lan as his successor when he dies those V votes they disappear and Lan could potentially be voted out uh by his three other siblings they could all gang up on him and that became a you know a genuine concern given that James uh his younger brother has not been shy about voicing his uh concerns about the direction of the company and the future of of the Murdoch name in the media so for a while there rert had stepped back um but it did seem possible that maybe it would be sort of game on as soon as he passed away this latest Revelation that's come out through this report in the New York Times is that when ruper decided to retire last year he actually put in place this other plan to sort of entrench his influence over the future direction of the company not only Beyond his retirement but kind of Beyond his death as well yeah I mean it's really a plot twist worthy of that acclaimed television series succession um because it in a way what it sounds like is he's really trying to entrench his conservative political agenda Beyond his death yeah so the the the New York Times report has basically revealed that Rupert um attempted to rewrite the terms of this Family Trust uh it was apparently called project Harmony um which is about as um good a title as Fox News as famous sort of fair and balance tagline but so the the New York Times got a hold of these papers from the probate court of Reno Nevada which um isn't quite as glamorous location as you'd see in if it was a TV show but basically this is a court where the rich and Powerful um love to sort out their family succession will issues because of its sort of very strong privacy um control so they can try and keep everything um behind closed doors and sweep swept under the carpet basically what this uh story has done is exposed um this attempt by ruper but also this challenge um by at least a couple of his other children to push back against this attempt to um firm up Lan's control over the company into the future and a lot of that concern the way that they' phrased this attempt to to to rewrite the terms of the trust is that the argument goes this is supposedly a goodfaith argument that if say Lan was voted out and James was going to exert control over the company and it's future Direction uh Fox News and some of those other um news titles that the company and the family still owns might pivot away from that conservative base um that Trump magga base that they've really lent into in the past few years um and try and pivot towards something perhaps a little more Centrist the argument goes that if they did that they would completely um destroy the the value of the company uh which would be bad news for all of the beneficiaries of the trust which isn't just for older siblings but also their two younger um younger siblings as well that rert had with Wendy Den I mean that's the argument um but really if it's a if it's a question of money all of the uh beneficiaries of this trust are all about $2 billion richer since they sold off 20th Century Fox to Disney in 2017 so really it's really about the the legacy of the Murdoch family in the media and the future of of the Murdoch name yeah and do you think having written about Rupert Murdoch it is about what he's built the Empire that has been built and and and the fact that he's gone so so conservative so far to the right to the sort of magga Base as you point out that it's something that means a lot to him to uh to to keep intact I mean certainly and you know he he the company has been you know beholden to the direction that he has set for it for 70 years more or less uh and so the idea that you know when he announc his retirement that he'd sort of walk away and ride off into the sunset that always seemed a little bit too good to be true and now we're realizing that it's definitely not he had put some plans into place but for me having spent a lot of time thinking about and writing about the early years of the Murdoch Empire and where rert came from uh there is a sense that perhaps by tweaking the terms of the Family Trust he's trying to avoid leaving Lan with a similar kind of power struggle that he was thrust into so his father Keith Murdoch famously was uh a very influential newspaper Baron in his own time uh in Melbourne in the 1950s but he died quite unexpectedly and although he tried to build up an inheritance for rert a few newspaper and radio interests uh in his will he said that he wanted rert to live a a useful altruistic life in the media uh but he died very suddenly barely 24 hours after initiating a border in Purge at The Herald and weekly times so when ruper inherited these newspaper interests he was thrown into to this sort of Sor swim battle where all of Keith's former allies and his Rivals were trying to sort of cut his lunch as he saw it and and rest back this inheritance that he' um that he received from his father so that was the the foundation the first battle that rid experienced and it it put him on a treadmill where he was constantly fighting constantly fighting back against these bigger um companies that his father had been in control of and you can see that that there's a sort of a pretty straight line um from that starting point to 70 years where he still has this sort of fight back mentality even though he is you know one of the most powerful and influential men of the past Century but Walter do you think though um you know as you said money isn't an issue have you ever heard of an example of this where someone wants to hold on to their legacy so tightly um and is there an economic argument for it and why does it have to be decided in a court like this it's a great question well I think that it it does tie back to the terms in which this trust was set up in the '90s so it was part of his divorce from his second wife Anna who was very keen that her children not be cut out or outvoted by any future plans that ruper might have or any future children that he might have so it's so it has been so kind of watertight that this is why he's had to go to these you know quite extraordinary lengths um to enshrine that influence by kind of rewriting the rule book um and uh yeah of whether it's a case of of money or just a more sort of philosophical question about what the family stands for I mean the as I said before they they've sold off the really profitable parts of of the family Holdings which was 20th Century Fox that's all belongs to Disney now and so what they've been left with is and what they're fighting over now is really this very newsy rump so it's Fox News In America which is still very influential um and fox broadcasting network and the the newspaper interest like Wall Street Journal and the New York Post and the papers in Australia like the Australian and all those Metropolitan dailies but really you know these aren't growth companies uh necessarily you know when ruper inherited this company uh it was a time of of extraordinary growth for newspaper for news companies uh and he was having to fight back to sort of stake his claim to a little part of that big Market that market has shrunk and the you know the the fight isn't from other people trying to take over um what the murdocks have it's really just squabbling for these um companies that in many ways have been in a long and steady decline quite mavan really good to chat we'll see what happens thanks for your time thank you