The secret battle for the Murdoch empire | ABC News Daily Podcast

ABC listen podcasts radio news music and [Music] more it's a real life succession drama next week the Murdoch family will head to court in Nevada in the US to battle it out over the future of the media Empire Rupert Murdoch wants to ensure his son Lan has full control once he dies so he's taking on three of his other children in court today journalist Patty Manning author of successor the first unauthorized biography of Lan Murdoch and producer of a three-part Australian Story series making Lan Murdoch on why he's the chosen one I'm Sam Hy on gadigal land in Sydney this is ABC News [Music] daily Patty over the decades we've all been captured by the real life melodrama of the Murdoch family I think that's safe to say and of course it's widely thought they were the inspiration behind the series sucession which we all loved as well why do you think we're so fascinated by them well I think the life of Rupert Murdoch especially for an Australian audience this is arguably the most consequential Australian that's ever lived this is a world historical figure and thank you to my very good friend rert Murdoch there's only one rert that way know rert Murdoch built the world's first global news media Empire good morning welcome to Fox News Channel this is Fox News now all the news and then there's the Intrigue Within the family over who would succeed rert and that's another layer of kind of drama if you like that has fascinated media Watchers journalists for decades yeah okay and the series succession might be over now but in real life the drama Patty is just ramping up with this court case in Nevada which we're really going to unpack with you there was a sense wasn't there that things might be a mess at ruford Murdoch's most recent wedding his fifth marriage tell me about that yes that's right he married Elena jakova earlier this year at his Vineyard in La called Moraga and there was a conspicuous absence of his other children only Lan was present and that kind of had heads scratching and I think although that's it's well known his youngest son James and his wife Katherine had been outspoken critics of you know some of the content uh published by box and news corporation it wasn't appreciated why his two Elder daughters wouldn't wouldn't be their prudence and Elizabeth and and it took a while for us to realize what had happened exactly okay and then came some reporting from The New York Times that uncovered a sealed court case a case where rert Murdoch and Lan are taking on James Elizabeth and Prudence so to understand that case before we get into that we really need to understand b a trust a family trust that was set up by ripard Murdoch back in 1999 so just explain that first of all yes that's right so the Mur family as always controlled the Empire through a a private trust which is uh domiciled in Nevada and the terms of that trust were set down when rer Murdoch divorced his second wife Anna Murdoch and she was very concerned at that point uh to make sure that any future children which rer Murdoch might have would not inherit control of the Murdoch media Empire mhm and so she left a lot of money on the table at that time in 1999 to ensure that control would only go to the four children from the first two marriages that's Prudence from the first marriage and then her three kids Elizabeth Lan and James and they were given one vote each in the trust itself so the trust has eight votes ruper has four while he's alive he is in complete control of the trust uh the kids have one each and what that sets up is an instability that when Rupert dies there's a four-way tussle with each child having one vote each and no provision for a tiebreak the scenario that has worried Lan although he's the designated successor and um ret retired at the end of last year the scenario that's worried him and ret is that there will be some kind of ganging up some kind of Brawl on the Family Trust that would change the direction of fox and news corporation and the worry there is that these children once Ripper dies will have equal voting rights but they have very different political views or perhaps it's more accurate to say has very different political views yes what's happened is that ret has tried to give Lan expanded voting power so that he can't be outvoted on the trust the proposal from rupit has been that the trust be amended so that Lan has unable control and that has forced effectively that move has forced the sisters into a position and they've lined up with James so when I wrote my book I was guided to write that the siblings were biting their time and that they believed that once ret passed they would reassert control and do it in a way that protect and and enhance democracy around the world rather than undermined it that's what I wrote that has come true now two years later okay so when riid Murdoch stepped down as chairman in September last year as you mentioned it's like he had a change of heart when it came to the trust that he'd set up in 1999 and he no longer wanted his children his adult children to have these equal voting rights instead he really wanted to favor Lan who he' put in to the position of chairman and now there's this court case and it's pretty secretive let's face it well that's right no one knew about this court case until the New York Times story which you U mentioned earlier which appeared in Late July which was a bombshell because the New York Times had a copy of a 48 page judgment by the NADA probate commissioner who has ruled that ruper was entitled to amend the terms of the trust if he was doing it in good faith and it was in the interests of all beneficiaries and Rupert's argument as we understand from the reporting in the times uh is that any moveed to change the editorial line of the Mur media businesses and in particular Fox News would diminish their value and therefore not be in the interests of any of the beneficiaries of the trust it's a kind of economic argument that a center right editorial position is the key to the profitability of businesses from Fox News to the Wall Street Journal to the Australian and many of the times of London and other Prestige media businesses that Fox and news corporation own that's what is going to be tested in court although as you say the proceedings are all secret so we may not know and if there's an appeal we may not have a result even as this thing heads to trial next week but this case it pits James Elizabeth and Prudence against their father and Lan I mean talk about a family feud yes well it's unprecedented certainly within this family for them to be heading to court so let's get back to that trial in in a moment Patty but let's just stop for a minute because you've been really also having a good look at Lan Murdock you've just released an Australian Story series trying to shed light on someone who compared to his father he's not that well understood what did you glean from all of that what did you discover well what we've learned in the course of making the three part series I we tried of course to get an interview with Lan and he didn't want to be interviewed and he told us that no serving director or employee of Fox on news corporation would cooperate with the program but we were able to talk to certain of Lan's friends and that includes people like James Packer they have an extraordinary uh relationship you know both as third generation medeor AES who is Lan Murdoch well it's a it's a it's a good question I think Lan is doing rid proud and Patty you also spoke to former journalist didn't you who worked in Rupert's Empire back when Lan was still a child my name's Mark day I joined the news on February 29 1960 he grew up at the feet of his father and he saw how it all worked years later I went to a dinner and in the middle table there sat group with Lan next to him and Lan had one of those tiny little reported notepads and he was assiduously making notes as dad was speaking to him and Anna looked over and said ah isn't that sweet he's acting just like his dad we've also spoken to journalists um including Jim Rutenberg who broke the um New York Times story about The Family Trust I think that all of Murdoch's children their stories are about proving themselves to to their father laan's story is the happiest story all Lan had to do to prove himself to his father was to be loin to be adoring to see the world the same way rert did that was Lan's Ace in the whole in the succession fight we spoke to for example CNN's Chief media analyst Brian stelter he's written two books on Fox News Lan Murdoch is the chosen son the CEO Fox Corporation the ultimate boss at Fox News but he operates almost entirely in the shadow he describes Lan as much more trumpy than than rert and that's consistent with other you know people who who say if anything Lan is more conservative than his [Music] father well let's get back to this court case then if rer wins this and I should say we might not even know I suppose what happens because it is all done in secret even though there was some news organizations that had been fighting that to basically be able to report on it but if he does win what does that mean for news and information once he dies because that would mean that Lan does have this extra power well it would be the status quo really because that's what rert and Lan in this action are trying to protect but it's ensuring that there isn't in the future some meltdown that occurs as a result of Rupert's death when the siblings end up fighting on the Family Trust it's true that you know some media organizations the New York Times amongst them CNN AP NPR a bunch were all arguing that the proceeding should be opened up but we saw in filings this week that you know there are some pretty strong counterarguments that the Muro are putting which is that these medal organizations are direct competitors of fox and news Corporation you know this is a private intra family dispute it would be extraordinary if the proceedings were thrown open to other rival media [Music] organizations all right well Patty it's a real life succession drama of course which is fascinating but I mean why should we really all care about a dispute within the Murdoch family well it does affect everyone I mean Australia we are the most concentrated media Market in the world and news cooperation is the most powerful media organization in this country we are all affected by the editorial values of news corporation one way or the other because they own 70% of the newspaper circulation in this country and they have a payv monopoly in foxt albe it that they are in the process of selling and also it has a important role uh in particular in the United States and we saw with the last election in in 2020 Fox News did help spread the baseless stolen election claims emanating from the Donald Trump campaign what is important is what lessons has Fox Corporation learned since 2020 and will it act differently to make sure there's not a repeat of that because we are heading to a very close election and Donald Trump again challenges the legitimacy of the election result it will be very important to the acceptance of the election result on the right how Fox News handles those claims all right a lot at stake fascinating to Watch What Happens thanks so much Penny thank you [Music] Sam Patty Manning is a journalist and producer of a three-part Australian Story series making Lan Murdoch you you can find part one on ABC I view part two goes to air on ABC TV on Monday night at 8:00 this episode was produced by Sydney Pete and Cara Jensen McKinnon audio production by Sam Dunn our supervising producer is David Cody I'm Sam hly ABC News Daily will'll be back again on Monday thanks for listening