Breaking news: Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as the chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp, ending a decades-long run that saw him become the driving force in American conservative media through Fox News. https://t.co/5AtAwR6VB7
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 21, 2023
Ninety-two-year-old Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch is turning over control of Fox Corporation and News Corp. to his son Lachlan, age 52, bringing an end to his domination of conservative media in the United States and around the world. Fox Corporation is known, of course, for the Fox News talk show cable network, and News Corp.’s best known US properties are the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.
Last week, Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple penned a career retrospective on Murdoch’s legacy. Wemple writes that while Murdoch’s work with the WSJ, the NY Post (founded in part by Alexander Hamilton!), and the 20th Century Fox movie studios was significant, it was his development of the popular Fox News cable network that was transformative to American media. Wemple writes:
At the network’s launch in 1996, Murdoch placed Republican operative and television producer Roger Ailes in charge of turning Fox News into the country’s No. 1 cable news operation. Ailes eventually succeeded, on the back of distorted and often false programming that vilified liberals and served as a mouthpiece for the Republican Party — essentially a glossy, televised version of a right-wing tabloid. Ailes lasted until 2016, when a lawsuit filed by onetime Fox News host Gretchen Carlson helped expose a wide-ranging sexual harassment scandal….
Yet subsequent events demonstrated that the Fox News programming formula — Republican propaganda and high ratings — was more durable than its architects. Minus Ailes, Fox News continued its path toward reckless and biased reporting, a strain personified by now-former host Tucker Carlson. For more than six years of prime-time broadcasting, Carlson served as disinformer in chief at Fox News, a run that enjoyed the support of Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch, the other top executive at Fox Corp. and News Corp.
According to the Washington Post, there is off-the-record talk that the Fox Corporation may get sold under the new leadership. Back in 2017, Fox sold off its 20th Century Fox movie studios to Disney, where it is now sadly known as 20th Century Studios.
Looking back, 2023 has been a rough year for Fox News.
- The cable network settled a libel suit from Dominion Voting System over claims that Dominion was defamed by Fox’s false claims that the company helped rig the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump. There was never any evidence that this happened. Fox agreed to pay $787.5 million.
- The network then followed this up by firing their most popular evening talk-show host Tucker Carlson. Reasons for the parting of the ways vary depending on who you ask, but they include racist comments, attacks on Fox management, and comments he had made about Dominion.