Rupert Murdoch announced Thursday that he will step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp.
“For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change,” Murdoch wrote in a memo to employees. “But the time is right for me to take on different roles, knowing that we have truly talented teams.”
His son, Lachlan Murdoch, will become sole chairman of both companies. Rupert Murdoch called his son “a passionate, principled leader.”
The 92-year-old media mogul, who got into the newspaper business in the 1950s, became a major Hollywood executive in 1985 when he purchased Twentieth Century Fox from oilman Marvin Davis for $600 million. In 1986, Murdoch got into the TV business after he purchased several US television stations and created Fox Broadcasting.
Fox News launched in 1996 as a startup competitor to CNN. It eventually became the No. 1 cable news channel in America and a bastion for Republican talking points and falsehoods.
Under Murdoch’s leadership, Fox News, a crown jewel of his profitable media empire, has echoed election lies espoused by former President Donald Trump in the wake of the 2020 election. Fox Corp. ultimately paid $787 million in a defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and faces another lawsuit from Dominion competitor Smartmatic.
It’s unclear if Fox’s direction will change under Lachlan Murdoch, who has served as CEO of Fox Corp. and a News Corp and Fox executive for decades.
However, Lachlan Murdoch has privately criticized Trump, saying that he disagrees with much of the way the former President behaves, sources told CNN. Murdoch has gone so far as to tell people that he believes if Trump were to run again, it would be bad for the country.
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated
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