‘you’ve Blown A Hole In The Family’: Inside The Murdochs’ Succession Drama

Last year, Nevada’s Washoe County probate court closed its doors to the world as, inside, Rupert Murdoch and his family fought over the future of the family trust and the controlling shares of their media empire. A lawsuit filed by The New York Times sought to open the case to the public, but was unsuccessful. However, Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg acquired 3,000 pages of court documents—“most of the briefs, all the rulings and the full transcript of the trial itself, including private messages between family members”—from which they’ve crafted this comprehensive account, spanning a quarter-century of legal maneuvers, dubious relationships, and the fracturing of the media world’s most notorious family. Once you’re through, head to The Atlantic, where McKay Coppins hones in on James Murdoch, giving the so-called “Troublesome Beneficiary” his voice (and matching the Times Magazine’s word count).

Rupert chose Lachlan as his successor in large part because he was confident that his oldest son would hold the conservative line. But if he fails to consolidate Lachlan’s control over the trust before he dies, the future of his companies will be thrown into uncertainty. The other three siblings could topple their brother and reorient the companies’ editorial bent. Or they could simply do nothing and let the trust expire. That is set to happen in 2030, at which point everyone would be free to sell their controlling shares to outsiders. These documents reveal that in a matter of years, the empire that Rupert spent his life building may no longer be controlled by his family.

The fight over the Murdoch family trust, then, is about much more than just billions of dollars. It is about the future of the most powerful media empire in the English-speaking world. No two news companies have done more to reshape the modern geopolitical order than Fox Corporation and News Corp. And for all the attention being commanded by the rise of a new class of social media moguls, like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, Fox News remains a unique force in American politics. The new Trump administration features numerous former hosts, paid contributors and employees of the network, including three cabinet members, and Fox News, by far America’s most-watched cable news network, hit record ratings in January. If Rupert fails to change the family trust, the modern conservative movement could lose one of its most powerful allies.