He’s the head of the most “powerful media family on earth.” Married to a former supermodel and rock wife, successfully influencing every English-speaking country for decades, and even tipping the scales in both the 2016 U.S. election and Brexit.
But now Rupert Murdoch’s Midas touch is starting to tarnish. At age 88, he’s barely speaking to one of his sons and has lost control over the media empire that’s become the Trump propaganda machine.
That’s the takeaway from the New York Times Magazine opus published Wednesday morning dissecting how the acting CEO of Fox News and owner of 21st Century Fox and U.K.’s News Corp. rose to the pinnacle of power—and now watches as his world starts to fall apart.
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Here, a look at the revelations in the 4,000-word Times profile:
The Murdoch Family Is 21st-Century Toxic
The authors paint a picture of a profoundly dysfunctional family, with his four grown children at constant war over how to run his media empire. Sons Lachlan, 47, and James, 46, have come to define brotherly hate. “He had long avoided naming one of his children as his successor, deferring an announcement that might create still more friction within his family, not to mention bringing into focus his own mortality,” the authors write. “Instead, Murdoch tried to manage the tensions, arranging for group therapy with his children and their spouses with a counselor in London who specialized in working with dynastic families. There was even a Succession-ish therapeutic retreat to the Murdoch ranch in Australia. But these sessions provided just another forum for power games and manipulation.”
The sons, who run their father’s company, even argued about whether or not to reassure Fox’s Muslim employees that they shouldn’t worry about Trump’s “Muslim ban.” James, who is more liberal, wanted to send out a company-wide memo. Lachlan edited the words “Trump” and “Muslim ban” out of it.
The authors say that James and his wife, Kathryn, consistently work against the Fox News machine, which they see as a weapon of misinformation. “James and Kathryn were planning to devote some of their fortune to try to neutralize that weapon,” they say. “In early 2019, their foundation, Quadrivium, announced initiatives to defend democratic nations against what they saw as the rising threat of illiberal populism and to bolster voting rights.”
The Kids Despise Murdoch’s Recent Wives
The one thing the Murdoch children do agree on is their father’s curious choice in women. They tried to break up his marriage to Chinese national Wendi Deng in 1999, just 17 days after he divorced Anna Maria Torv, a journalist and mother of James and Lachlan, who was his wife of nearly three decades. “[Lachlan] and James had tried to talk their father out of marrying Wendi over a 1999 dinner at the Manhattan restaurant Babbo,” they write. “She was the rare subject on which the two sons agreed—and both of them had grown even less fond of her in the years that followed. James and at least one other company executive had heard from senior foreign officials that they believed she was a Chinese intelligence asset. And family members felt that she treated their father terribly, calling him ‘old’ and ‘stupid.’”
Murdoch and Ailes Thought of Trump as a Useful Idiot and Trump Knew It and Hated Them for It
Rupert had to be convinced to attach Fox News to Trump’s bandwagon before the 2016 elections. “Murdoch recognized Trump’s appeal as a tabloid character and ratings driver, but he did not see him as a serious person, let alone a credible candidate for president,” the authors write. “‘He’s a [expletive] idiot,’ Murdoch would say when asked about Trump,” three people told The New York Times Magazine. Roger Ailes, who led Fox News during the election, didn’t feel confident either. “Ailes ranted indignantly about the notion of a Trump presidency, saying that he wasn’t remotely worthy of the Oval Office,” the authors say. “It fell mostly to Ailes to manage the network’s tumultuous relationship with Trump, who complained constantly that Fox favored Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.”
But all that changed when Trump won and soon Murdoch knew that Fox News was directly influencing U.S. policy. “Fifty years and an untold number of deals after taking possession of [his first newspaper] The News of Adelaide, Murdoch had arrived at the pinnacle of global influence,” the authors say. “‘Republicans originally thought that Fox worked for us,’ David Frum, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, said. ‘And now we’re discovering we work for Fox.”
Once Ailes left the network in shame, Murdoch’s sons argued about how to make Fox News more neutral. “James saw in Ailes’ exit an opportunity to push the network in a new direction,” the authors write. “He wanted to bring in an experienced news executive who would reposition it as a more responsible, if still conservative, outlet—one whose hosts would no longer be free to vent without adhering to basic standards of accuracy, fairness and, as he saw it, decency.” James had David Rhodes, then president of CBS News, in mind. “Both Murdoch and Lachlan dismissed the idea. They wanted continuity, not change. Like his father, Lachlan considered the idea of meddling with such an important profit driver a form of madness.”
Ivanka and Jared Kissed Up to Murdoch to Keep Him on Their Father’s Side
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner knew early on that having Fox News behind a Trump candidacy was crucial to the win, so they went all out to make sure it happened. As the relationship blossomed, Rupert and Wendi Deng took Javanka on vacation with them in the Caribbean on on their yacht shortly before their 2013 split. Then the Kushners supported Murdoch through the divorce. “Kushner, who was also in the real-estate business, helped him find a decorator for his new bachelor apartment,” the authors write. “Ivanka was one of five individuals designated to oversee the trust for Murdoch and Wendi’s two daughters, which held $300 million in stock in News Corp and 21st Century Fox. (She relinquished her role as a trustee in 2016.)”
Murdoch Nearly Put His Power Behind Kasich and Hillary
Even as hard as they tried, Ivanka and Jared nearly lost Murdoch’s support for Donald Trump. “Kushner was privately lobbying Murdoch to reconsider his attitude toward his father-in-law, showing him videos of the candidate’s overflowing campaign rallies on his iPhone,” the authors write. “Even as Trump gained momentum, Murdoch continued to look for alternatives. Over the summer of 2015, he wrote a personal check for $200,000 to the super PAC of Gov. John Kasich, the relatively moderate Republican from Ohio, according to Federal Election Commission filings.”
Murdoch also considered backing Hillary Clinton. “Aware of her father-in-law’s dim view of Trump, James’ wife, Kathryn, tried to broker a meeting between Murdoch and Hillary Clinton,” they say. “Having worked for the Clinton Climate Initiative, she knew both the Clintons and their inner circle of advisers and hoped Murdoch might consider an endorsement, or at least commit to staying neutral. The idea was not so far-fetched. ”
Trump Preferred Being Interviewed by Bill O’Reilly over Sean Hannity
It’s no secret that Fox host Sean Hannity is a Trump loyalist, but when it came to pre-election interviews, Trump actually preferred Bill O’Reilly, calling Hannity a suck-up. “Trump was also spending a lot of time on the phone with Hannity, who regularly called the president after his show,” the authors note. “Trump had often found him to be too much of a supplicant for his purposes: He preferred his more combative interviews with Bill O’Reilly, which he felt better showcased his pugnaciousness, according to a former White House official. But Trump appreciated Hannity’s loyalty.”
Trump also trusted Hannity as a protector of sorts. “The Fox host had effectively been a member of his campaign team, for instance pressing Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to be on the lookout for former girlfriends and employees who might make trouble for the candidate ahead of the election,” the authors say, quoting two unnamed people familiar with the interactions.
Rupert Murdoch Is Incredibly Feeble
Several times throughout the opus, Murdoch is described as falling down, tripping, or on his deathbed. Once in 2018, when he fell on Lachlan’s yacht, they thought he might actually not recover. “Murdoch had fallen a couple of other times in recent years, once on the stairs while exiting a stage, another time on a carpet in a San Francisco hotel,” they write. “The family prevented word from getting out on both occasions, but the incidents were concerning. This one seemed far more serious. Murdoch was stretchered off the Sarissa and flown to a hospital in Los Angeles. The doctors quickly spotted broken vertebrae, which required immediate surgery, as well as a spinal hematoma, increasing the risk of paralysis or even death. [Wife Jerry] Hall called his adult children in a panic, urging them to come to California prepared to make peace with their father.”
Murdoch’s Oldest Son Threatened to Stop Speaking to Him
The sibling rivalry continued through Murdoch’s Disney merger, with the boys at odds about where the company should go. “Lachlan was furious. His father was talking about dismantling the empire not even three years after coaxing him back from Australia to run it, an empire that had taken a lifetime to build,” they say. Lachlan argued that 21st Century Fox was “big enough to compete as it as was.” But the elder Murdoch didn’t see it that way. “The smaller piece of the empire that [Lachlan] would be left with—a network with an aging audience in the increasingly anachronistic business of cable television—was hardly a growth business.” As the talks progressed, Murdoch’s oldest son grew angrier. “Why the [expletive] would I want to run this company?” he told people close to him, according to the authors. “Lachlan’s anger at his father boiled over during a dinner in Manhattan in the fall of 2017,” according to three sources familiar with the incident. “If you take one more call on this deal, you will not have a son!” Lachlan reportedly told his father. “I will never talk to you again.”
Trump’s Opposition to the Time Warner-AT&T Merger Was a Favor to Murdoch
The authors say that while it was widely believed that Trump’s opposition to the Time Warner-AT&T merger was mostly out of hate for CNN, which Time Warner owns, it also benefited Murdoch’s media empire. “Media empires are built on the foresight and audacity of their leaders, their ability to anticipate and embrace sudden changes in an industry that’s constantly evolving. But they are also built on something far more mundane: government regulations,” they write. “Under President Trump, these decisions have almost always broken Murdoch’s way. The Time Warner-AT&T deal was itself a good example of the ambiguities of this bureaucratic process. It worked out perfectly for Murdoch.”
Being Friendly to Trump Helped Murdoch Push Disney Merger Fast
Fox News’ loyalty to the president also helped Murdoch seal a deal with Disney in 2019. “The speed with which Murdoch’s Disney deal was approved stood in stark contrast,” the authors say. “Such deals ordinarily invite strict government scrutiny. The Department of Justice approved it in just six months. After calling Murdoch to ensure that the deal wouldn’t affect Fox News, Trump had applauded it: “This could be a great thing for jobs,” his press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said when asked to characterize the president’s reaction to the agreement.” In reality, Wall Street analysts said the deal would result in thousands of layoffs.
The Murdoch sons would not both survive in their father’s company. James eventually left after a series of confrontations over the bid for British Sky TV, which James worried would destroy the heart of the company he loved the most. Unlike the vitriol being spewed on Fox News, James preferred to tout company’s other assets like National Geographic, FX, Fox Sports, Sky Atlantic, which he once said had “explored the opioid epidemic, gender identity and race relations” and “told powerful stories of slavery in America, the rights of women in Pakistan and the coming and inevitable exploration of Mars.”
Still, it would not end well for the younger Murdoch. “The negotiations continued. As they did, Lachlan and James adjusted to their new realities. Unable to secure a job at Disney that he wanted, and wary of its aggressively safe and hierarchical culture, James decided in the winter that he would not try to follow the family’s assets to their new home,” the writers say, quoting three people who are close to him. “Lachlan would take over what was left of the Murdoch empire without interference from his brother.”
In December 2018, Lachlan sealed the deal and James was out.
