Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who started Fox News, among many other media companies, and changed the American news landscape, is stepping down as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp.
Murdoch, 92, said he will step down in November and become chairman emeritus of each company. His son, Lachlan, will become the sole chair of News Corp. and continue as executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corp.
In a memo to employees, the elder Murdoch said, “For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles, knowing that we have truly talented teams and a passionate, principled leader in Lachlan who will become sole Chairman of both companies.
In a statement from Fox, Lachlan Murdoch said, “On behalf of the FOX and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career. We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted. We are grateful that he will serve as Chairman Emeritus and know he will continue to provide valued counsel to both companies.”
While perhaps best known for launching the Fox network in 1986 and the conservative Fox News in 1996, Murdoch’s career runs back decades and goes far beyond Fox. He got his start in his native Australia back in the 1950s with a small newspaper chain.
By the 1960s, he had acquired more papers in Australia and eventually controlled two-thirds of the country’s newspaper circulation. He then set his sights outside of Australia, specifically in the United Kingdom and United States. Ultimately, he took over The News of the World, The Sun and the Times of London in the U.K. and several publications in the U.S., including the New York Post, Village Voice and The Wall Street Journal.
But his biggest influence would eventually come through television. In the 1980s, he started the fledgling Fox Network. Many at the time doubted that Fox could actually challenge the American big three networks — ABC, CBS and NBC. But it eventually elbowed its way into the mainstream thanks to it stunningly acquiring rights to air the National Football League in early 1990s, outbidding CBS. That, along with hit shows such as “The Simpsons” and “American Idol,” helped Fox become a major network, right along with the big three.
He also got into the movie business, taking over a studio, 21st Century Fox, that would produce blockbusters such as “Avatar” and “Titanic” before selling the studio to Disney for $71 billion in 2019.
But one can’t think of Murdoch without thinking of Fox News, the cable network that draws a fiercely loyal audience. It started as a network aimed at those who lean right. But it has devolved into a much more divisive and meaner network in recent years.
As the Los Angeles Times Stephen Battaglio and Meg James wrote, “Critics have accused Murdoch’s media outlets of contributing to the coarseness and polarization of society. In the U.S., he is equally loved and reviled for creating Fox News, which has championed conservative causes, including the political career of Donald Trump, and blasted liberals.”
Variety’s Daniel D’Addario wrote, “(Fox News) has given its voice and its vim by the late Roger Ailes, has set the agenda for the modern conservative movement, with its opinion hosts broadcasting in bitter opposition to what they depict as the foibles of modern liberalism and helping make both media and political stars. In the hands of Murdoch and of Ailes, politics on TV became a slugfest; the network’s most prized hosts were the ones most adventurously and creatively willing to heap scorn upon their ideological enemies. Ailes uniquely understood broadcasting, but Murdoch, born out of a previous era of newspapermen elbowing one another for readers’ attention and their money, understood tabloid sensibility. And Ailes built out a network that looked for all the world like a Murdoch tabloid: It took an almost sensual delight in sinking its teeth into the news of the day.”
Fox News started with the label “fair and balanced,” but it always leaned right. That shift has become both more extreme and more noticeable in the past decade.
As CNN’s Oliver Darcy accurately wrote, “The channel, however, veered from its roots in conservative news as former President Donald Trump ascended to power in the Republican Party in 2015, becoming an unabashed home of right-wing propaganda aimed at propping up the scandal-ridden White House. In recent years, under Murdoch, Fox News has advanced baseless conspiracy theories, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 presidential election.”
In fact, one of the lasting memories of Murdoch’s reign at Fox News will be Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against the network for amplifying baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being rigged to favor President Joe Biden. Just as the trial was getting underway earlier this year, Fox settled by paying Dominion $787.5 million. Fox is now facing another lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting machine company.
So now what happens with Lachlan Murdoch taking over? Does anything change?
Well, Lachlan, 52, is already heavily involved in the family business, having served as the chief executive of Fox Corp. A memo to employees on Thursday from Rupert suggests Fox isn’t suddenly going to change its politics.
Rupert wrote to employees, “My father firmly believed in freedom, and Lachlan is absolutely committed to the cause. Self- serving bureaucracies are seeking to silence those who would question their provenance and purpose. Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class. Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth.”
That doesn’t sound as if Lachlan is going to shift the network’s narratives.
However, it will be interesting to see how the network treats Donald Trump as we approach the 2024 election. There had been reports that the Murdochs, particularly Lachlan, were souring on Trump. But with Trump likely to be the Republican nominee for president and many of Fox News’ on-air stars still in Trump’s corner, it would not be surprising to see Fox News continue to back the former president.
And because the bulk of its viewers are Trump supporters (or, at least, not Biden supporters), Fox News is going to do what it sees as good business and give the people what they want, whether it’s good for the country or not.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Tom Jones is Poynter’s senior media writer. For the latest media news and analysis, delivered free to your inbox each and every weekday morning, sign up for his Poynter Report newsletter.
