One of the purposes of Murdoch's initiation of this legal battle is to ensure that the political stance and editorial direction of his media empire will "never change color" after his death. Amidst the drama of Trump being shot, Biden being forced to pass the baton, and the twists and turns of the US election, another grand play of empire baton passing and family infighting is secretly underway. This family is the media tycoon Murdoch family, and this empire is the media empire that integrates News Corp and Fox Corporation. It is well known that the Murdoch media empire plays a very important role in the English-speaking world, especially in the political process of the United States.

Murdoch wants his eldest son to control alone

Murdoch initially filed this lawsuit involving the inheritance and control rights of his media empire in Nevada, USA, at the end of last year. Court documents show that the two parties in dispute are on one side Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan, and on the other side are his other three children: James, Elisabeth, and Prudence. It is said that Murdoch, who is 93 years old this year, initiated this legal battle with the aim of allowing his media empire to continue to maintain a right-wing color after his death, and to be controlled by his eldest son Lachlan, who has conservative ideas and a right-leaning political stance like him. Considering Murdoch's age, this is very likely to be the last legal battle for the inheritance of his media empire. Murdoch was born in Melbourne, Australia, and now lives in the United States. He is the world's leading media tycoon. His media empire is mainly divided into two companies: one is Fox Corporation, including Fox News and Fox Broadcasting Network; the other is News Corp, whose newspapers include the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post in the United States, the Times and the Sun in the United Kingdom, and some newspapers in Australia. However, many Chinese people only know the name Murdoch through his marriage with Chinese woman Wendi Deng. Murdoch has been married five times, and he has six children with three of his ex-wives, namely his daughter Prudence with his first wife Patricia Booker, his daughter Elisabeth and two sons Lachlan and James with his second wife Anna Murdoch Mann, and his two daughters Grace and Chloe with his third wife Wendi Deng. Among these six children, apart from the two children born to Murdoch and Deng, who are relatively young, the other four children are very fierce in the competition for the control of the family business. On September 21, 2023, Murdoch announced that he would officially resign as the chairman of Fox and News Corp in November of the same year, becoming the honorary chairman of the two companies. His eldest son Lachlan will succeed him, becoming the sole chairman of News Corp, and will continue to serve as the executive chairman and CEO of Fox, becoming the sole heir to the family business. The decades-long "Murdoch Empire successor battle" has finally come to light. According to leaked secret court documents, the latest legal battle of the Murdoch family is centered on the control of the Murdoch family trust fund. Murdoch established this family trust fund nearly 25 years ago, which holds about 40% of the voting shares in Fox Corporation and News Corp. All six of Murdoch's children have the same shares in this family trust fund, but Deng's two daughters do not have voting rights. It is said that Deng once tried to fight for equal rights for her two children, but was unanimously opposed by the four older children. The current regulations of the trust fund stipulate that once Murdoch dies, his four children - Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence - will have equal control rights in the trust fund. However, at the end of last year, Murdoch submitted an application to a court in Nevada, hoping to give his eldest son Lachlan exclusive control of the trust fund.

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The dispute over editorial direction

It is said that one of the purposes of Murdoch's initiation of this legal battle is to ensure that the political stance and editorial direction of his media empire will "never change color" after his death. In terms of political stance, the eldest son Lachlan is as conservative as his father, while the youngest son James, who was once regarded as the successor, is more inclined to be liberal. Elisabeth's rebellion is manifested in another form: the production company she founded has been funding a non-profit project to introduce young people of color into the entertainment industry, which is also the content favored by Democratic voters. The eldest daughter Prudence's political stance is also quite moderate. Although she has held several positions in the Murdoch media empire, she has never been interested in becoming the company's successor. With the rise of Trump, Murdoch and Lachlan have increasingly leaned towards Trump in terms of media editorial direction, especially pushing the most influential Fox News in his media empire towards a more right-wing direction. However, this approach has made the other three children more and more uncomfortable. In the last US presidential election, James publicly supported the Democratic presidential candidate Biden and made donations to the Democratic Party. James also said that he did not approve of some of the content of Fox TV, such as the report on the Capitol riots. It is said that James's political stance and editorial tendencies have made Murdoch very unhappy. In recent years, people familiar with James and his wife Catherine have said that after Murdoch's death, the James couple will consider joining forces with Elisabeth and Prudence to seize control from Lachlan, in order to weaken the increasingly right-wing editorial direction of the Murdoch media empire. Murdoch is worried that if his children fiercely compete for the control of the trust fund after his death, it will not only reverse his long-standing editorial direction, but also drag down his media empire in business. "If the children fight too fiercely, the entire family trust fund may also go down together," Murdoch once said with great distress. The latest court documents show that Murdoch argued in court that only by authorizing Lachlan to run the company without interference from James, Elisabeth, and Prudence can Lachlan maintain the consistent right-wing editorial tendencies of the Murdoch family media empire and protect the commercial value of the family business for all heirs. Regarding his father's attempt to rewrite the trust fund charter, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence were caught off guard for a while, but after realizing that things were not good, they were very angry, so they joined forces in court to jointly prevent their father's intentions. They claimed that their father did not act in good faith and violated the spirit of the establishment of the trust fund. Lachlan also joined the lawsuit, of course, on the side of his father. It is worth mentioning that the legal battle of the Murdoch family, which began at the end of last year, was conducted in secret, and the relevant news was not reported by the media until July 24 this year.Intertwined Performances of Two Grand Plays

In June of this year, the probate commissioner of Nevada, United States, stated that if Murdoch could prove that he acted in good faith with the intention of safeguarding the interests of all beneficiaries, then he could amend the articles of the family trust fund. It is anticipated that the court will make a ruling on this legal dispute in September. Both parties in the lawsuit have retained highly renowned attorneys: Murdoch's lawyer is Adam Streisand, who has represented two pop music superstars, Michael Jackson and Britney Spears, while the trio of Meese, Elizabeth, and Prudence have hired Gary Bernstein, the co-chair of the litigation department at the top-tier American law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Through their shared attorney, Murdoch's three children have pointed out that their father's actions were not in good faith but rather an attempt to strip them of their rights within the family trust fund, violating the initial spirit of trust reflected in the "equal governance clause." Murdoch's lawyer argued that the elderly father's lawsuit ultimately aims to protect all his children from the ongoing struggle for control of the trust fund, which could affect Fox's political stance and disrupt the company's commercial operations. It is reported that after submitting the application to amend the trust fund's articles, Murdoch met separately with Elizabeth and Prudence in London, hoping to gain their support, but the two daughters were extremely angry at his actions. In June, when Murdoch and his fifth wife, Elena Rukoko, held their wedding ceremony in California, USA, James, Elizabeth, and Prudence did not attend their father's wedding. In the United States, politics and media have always been closely related and influence each other. Now, the "ultimate battle" for the control of Murdoch's media empire coincides with the U.S. elections: the court will rule on this case two months before the voting day. Amidst the fiery contest between the first female presidential candidate of color, Harris, and Trump, who is attempting a "second term," how the most politically influential right-wing media empire in the United States reports on and influences this dramatic election while embroiled in a family feud is also of great interest.