Nevada Commissioner Rules Against Rupert Murdoch’s Bid to Change Family Trust
A Nevada commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to change his family’s trust, which would have consolidated his eldest son Lachlan’s control over his media empire and locked in Fox News’s right-wing editorial slant.
The commissioner, Edmund J. Gorman Jr., concluded that Mr. Murdoch and Lachlan had acted in “bad faith” in their effort to amend the irrevocable trust, which divides control of the company equally among Mr. Murdoch’s four oldest children – Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence – after his death.
The ruling was scathing, with Mr. Gorman characterizing the plan to change the trust as a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust.
Mr. Murdoch, 93, has long intended to bequeath his sprawling media conglomerates to his children, but he is also determined to preserve the right-wing bent of his empire. The battle over the family trust is not about money, but rather about future control of the world’s most powerful conservative media empire.
The dispute has further inflamed tensions inside the famously fractious Murdoch family, with Lachlan and Mr. Murdoch seeking to consolidate control and James, Elisabeth, and Prudence trying to retain some semblance of control over the family business.
The commissioner’s ruling is not the final word in the case, and the losing party can appeal to a district judge. If Mr. Murdoch and Lachlan do not succeed in court, they could pursue other means to consolidate Lachlan’s power, such as buying out his siblings’ stake in the company.
The dispute has significant implications for the future of Fox News and the Murdoch family’s media empire, with Lachlan seeking to lock in his control and his siblings trying to retain some influence over the company.
