Murdoch attempt to change family’s trust over Fox News media empire control rejected
A sealed document obtained by The New York Times says a Nevada commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s effort to change his family’s trust to give his son Lachlan Murdoch control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservativ...
RENO, Nev. — A probate commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s effort to change his family’s trust to give one of his sons control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant, according to a sealed document obtained by The New York Times.
In a decision filed on Saturday, a probate commissioner in Nevada concluded that Murdoch, 93, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, had acted in “bad faith” in their endeavor to amend the irrevocable trust, The New York Times reported on Monday.
The trust divides control of the company equally among four of Rupert Murdoch’s children — Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James — after he dies. Lachlan Murdoch has been the head of Fox News and News Corp since late last year, when his father stepped down.
The elder Murdoch has argued that to preserve his businesses’ commercial value for all his heirs, the trust must be changed to allow Lachlan Murdoch to maintain Fox News' conservative bent. James and Elisabeth Murdoch are both known to have less-conservative political views than their father or brother, potentially complicating efforts to ensure that Fox News remains conservative.
In his 96-page opinion, Nevada Probate Commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. of the Second Judicial District Court characterized 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
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