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00:10I met with James a few times throughout the fall in 2024, when the trial was going on.
00:19Everybody was speculating about what would happen, who would win.
00:24And there's this interesting moment that happened.
00:33James, Liz, and Prudence met at James's country house in Connecticut.
00:41I think all of them were sort of grappling with the fact that this whole process might have driven a
00:48permanent wedge into the family, and they might not come back from this.
00:54And they wondered if there might be an opportunity to patch things up with their father and brother.
01:03And so James and his sisters wrote this letter to Rupert that basically proposed a detente.
01:12We can pause the litigation, get the lawyers out of the room, get the probate commissioner out of the room,
01:19and just talk about this like a family.
01:24We feel like maybe you don't realize how much pain this has caused us, but we could work something out
01:30if we just try to approach it in good faith.
01:34A couple days go by, and they get a letter back from Rupert, that says, I've reread all of your
01:41testimony from the trial.
01:44I'm more convinced than ever that I was right.
01:50If you want to talk to me, talk to my lawyers.
01:53And that's it.
02:15For months, the Murdoch family have been in Reno, Nevada, in this pitched fight to wing control.
02:24As Rupert sees it, Lachlan is the only one that will carry on what Rupert built.
02:30If Liz, James, and Prue win this case, his entire life's work will be over.
02:40Bill Barr, do you have any comment on the way in?
02:43How are you involved in today's case?
02:47He's hired the former attorney general of the United States, Bill Barr.
02:51This gigantic figure in conservative politics, in Trump world politics.
02:57He and Rupert have become quite close in recent years.
03:01In fact, at Rupert's 90th birthday party, Bill Barr played bagpipes.
03:08Rupert has brought him in as his new managing director on the trust.
03:12That made something that would have seemed totally implausible.
03:16The idea that Rupert should be able to change an inviolable trust.
03:19That made it at least plausible.
03:22Barr is basically the hired gun to make the case that this is about the financial value of these companies
03:30and protecting all beneficiaries.
03:35Barr wants to prove that it's bad for companies when succession is unresolved.
03:42So he orders an analysis, a report, of what has happened to other companies that have been tied up in
03:48succession fights.
03:51It turns out that in some of the companies that were studied for this report, succession struggles actually were good
03:58for shareholders.
03:59And the shareholders made a lot of money.
04:01So Barr sees this, it's not what he wants to hear, it doesn't help their argument, and he puts it
04:07in a drawer.
04:08In his testimony, it comes out that he had not shared this report with the other managing directors.
04:14He never spoke to James's managing director about it, he never spoke to Liz's managing director about it.
04:20Barr hid that, and the commissioner found that as a sign of bad faith.
04:26He should have shared that what they were doing is not for the benefit of all the beneficiaries.
04:32And at the end of the day, if this is about treating all the siblings equally and fairly, why were
04:38the other children in the dark about all of this?
04:43You're reading faces coming out of the building.
04:46It's pretty somber.
04:48Those decisions to lock in Lachlan's leadership and to preserve Rupert's legacy,
04:56those were clearly going to cause some problems for him.
05:06Hacking into the phones of murder victims.
05:08Keenous and despicable.
05:10Relatives of dead servicemen.
05:12Inappropriate payments to police.
05:15Horrifying.
05:16What does this say about the future of journalism?
05:18The phone hacking spectacle was so damaging for the Murdoch brand.
05:23I was appalled to find out what had happened.
05:27Pressure is building on his son James to step down.
05:31James is the bag man in the phone hacking scandal.
05:35James, fairly or unfairly, had been tarnished.
05:41Meanwhile, Lachlan has left the family company and is in Australia licking his wounds, surfing, rock climbing.
05:52He's running non-Murdoch media companies.
05:55Lachlan Murdoch has been appointed the acting CEO of Network 10.
05:59He's also made a lot of really bad decisions.
06:01Network 10 needs yet another multi-million dollar cash injection.
06:05The 10 network posted a $13 million loss.
06:10But he never felt he was out of the race to take over from Rupert.
06:13The wolves are circling around James Murdoch, whose handling of the crisis has been heavily criticized.
06:19After the phone hacking scandal broke, James left Europe in disgrace and started a new job in the New York
06:27headquarters,
06:28where he spends a couple of years working under his dad.
06:33So James feels like he's still the only game in town when it comes to succession.
06:47Then, in 2015, Lachlan flies in from Australia.
06:54Almost immediately, James is asked to meet with Lachlan at a restaurant in Manhattan.
07:04He sits down and he is told that Lachlan is going to run the company and that James is now
07:13going to report to him.
07:16James is just stunned.
07:21He storms off and sends word, that's it, he's out.
07:29As word gets out within the company that James might have resigned and Lachlan is coming back,
07:34several of the executives make known their concern about the situation.
07:39If they lose James, they're losing the only Murdoch's son who knows how the company works.
07:45He's been working in the trenches for the last decade, while Lachlan has been off in Australia kind of doing
07:51his own thing.
07:54So Rupert comes up with a plan to try to woo James back.
07:59Rupert decides that he's going to put both of his sons in charge of the company.
08:05James was named CEO and Lachlan was named executive chairman of the company, a title that Rupert also maintained.
08:15James has devoted his whole life to this company. You don't just walk away from that.
08:20But I think there's a way deeper emotional tie here.
08:25Walking away from the company he knows won't mean walking away from his family.
08:31So James agrees.
08:33Now you have the two sons anointed together.
08:37They were given this perch and it was essentially Rupert saying,
08:41OK, what are you going to do?
08:51James and Lachlan were the ultimate Nepo babies.
08:56These guys were young.
08:58They were 40 years old and they were being put into these jobs running one of the five traditional Hollywood
09:05studios.
09:09At the time, I was an editor at the Hollywood Reporter.
09:14In my interview with them, they wanted everyone to know that they have taste, they have vision,
09:20and that they were in charge of the Hollywood studio now.
09:24They had been coached by their communications person.
09:27So they were putting on their best CEO face.
09:32But it was very clear that there was something below the surface that they were not telling me.
09:40There was an endless tug of war between the two of them.
09:45James sensed that Lachlan thought that he could run a big complicated media company just by being around his dad.
09:53And James really resented that.
09:56James would look for opportunities to one up his older brother.
10:02Lachlan was dyslexic and struggled with some speech issues.
10:08James would challenge him in these board meetings and pick apart his logic and witheringly argue against his various ideas.
10:17Lachlan would sort of become flustered and not know what to say.
10:21And when Rupert was in the room, he never stepped in to stop it.
10:25He wants to know whether they have got the fight in them to see who can stand up to the
10:31pressure.
10:33The media business is a brutal competitive industry and Rupert was playing to win.
10:46Rupert is by now in his 80s.
10:49He remains this dynamic figure trotting the world, meeting prime ministers and presidents.
10:56Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Rupert Murdoch.
11:02Oh, thank you, Jeb.
11:04Media mogul Rupert Murdoch delivered the keynote address this morning at an education conference.
11:08We need to tear down an education system designed for the 19th century.
11:14Murdoch uses this big media empire to push the world in the way that he wants it to go.
11:19Resist corporate domination of public education.
11:24Members of the Occupy Wall Street movement repeatedly interrupt Murdoch's speech.
11:28It's okay, a little controversy makes everything more interesting.
11:34Uh...
11:35By 2015, Rupert's been able to push a populist, nativist agenda.
11:42Microaggressions and the patriarchy.
11:44Abortion without limits.
11:46Endless chain of migrant caravans.
11:48By the end of the Obama administration, Fox News had a huge influence over the dialogue
11:53and the commentary and the issues of our time.
11:56Rupert was a real kingmaker among politicians.
12:01For decades, every candidate goes to kiss the ring.
12:08And then Rupert gets a call.
12:13It's Ivanka Trump.
12:15She wants to arrange a meeting with her husband, Jared Kushner, her father, Donald Trump, and Rupert.
12:25Rupert, you know, had known Trump for years.
12:27I mean, they went back to 1980s New York.
12:30They did both share this vision of knocking down the establishment in order to make their own way.
12:37But they were at different levels of wealth, at different levels of respect.
12:41Donald Trump was like a feature of the tabloids.
12:45And Rupert Murdoch owned the tabloids.
12:49Rupert didn't take Donald Trump seriously.
12:57But he agreed to have lunch with him.
13:00They sit down.
13:02The first course has just been served.
13:07And Trump says, he's gonna run for president.
13:11You know, Rupert, who one has to assume is pretty stunned, does not look up from his soup and says,
13:18you're gonna have to be ready to get wrapped up pretty badly.
13:21And, you know, wrapped up is an Australianism for, you know, getting beat up.
13:25So he's basically, you know, warning Trump that, you know, you're gonna take a beating.
13:32Welcome to the first debate night of the 2016 presidential campaign.
13:36I'm Megyn Kelly.
13:38The very first Republican primary debate was hosted by Fox News.
13:46It was one of the first candle calls of all the Republican presidential candidates on stage in front of this
13:52big audience.
13:53In the center of the stage tonight, businessman Donald Trump.
14:00Murdoch didn't like Trump.
14:02He didn't like him as a candidate.
14:04He called him a fucking idiot.
14:06I think Rupert wanted Trump gone.
14:09Mr. Trump, you've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.
14:17Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women's looks.
14:22The tenor of her question was aggressive.
14:25It could flatten him, and it could take him out.
14:29Your Twitter account has several...
14:30Only Rosie O'Donnell.
14:32No, it wasn't.
14:36In that moment, Trump successfully brushes it off.
14:41It was Trump who had the better understanding of the public, that you could say things which were unacceptable and
14:49walk it off.
14:50We have to make our country great again, and I will do that.
14:57Donald Trump became his own megawatt star on that debate stage.
15:03Trump is a ratings bonanza.
15:06But he sensed that Fox News tried to get rid of him.
15:10You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.
15:16Trump started openly criticizing Fox.
15:19That had never happened to Rupert before.
15:22When Rupert decided to tweet, he very pointedly told Donald Trump to get out of the race.
15:29It was civil war in the Republican Party.
15:33Murdoch went full-court press favoring people who weren't Trump.
15:37Rupert Murdoch is a conservative.
15:40He wants conservative politicians to be in power.
15:44But he found Trump worrying and dangerous.
15:48I don't think he likes this Republican Party.
15:50He liked the other one before, with the Mitch McConnells and that gang.
15:55In the past, Republican candidates had no real power unless they were operating in line with Rupert's wishes.
16:03And Trump would not.
16:05Fox is playing game.
16:07What's wrong over there?
16:09Something's wrong.
16:10And so I'm going to be making a decision with Fox, but probably I won't be doing the debate.
16:15The next debate is also hosted by Fox News.
16:19Before we get to the issues, let's address the elephant not in the room tonight.
16:25Donald Trump does not participate in this next debate.
16:30But he sets up his own rival event.
16:32We're actually told that we have more cameras than they do by quite a bit, so that's sort of interesting.
16:38The Kelly file starts in a moment, and guess who's going to be there?
16:40Senator Ted Cruz.
16:42The ratings tank.
16:44Trump took the viewers with him.
16:46Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!
16:50Fox's audience turned against Fox and towards Donald Trump.
16:56Normally, Murdoch was able to say and tell politicians what to do, when to stand up, when to sit down.
17:02But he had never been so clearly smacked down as in that moment.
17:13Trump is going to win, and the world is going to be a happy place to have a good day.
17:18Mr. Trump, can you just quit the class? I was going to add that earlier.
17:21Rupert Murdoch always goes in the winning direction.
17:25And he sees which way the wind is blowing.
17:29Donald Trump had become the dominant force in conservative politics.
17:35Murdoch will do what it takes for his business interests, including holding his nose and backing Donald Trump.
17:43It was amazing to see Rupert, you know, in the back of a golf cart, you know, with Trump behind
17:49the wheel.
17:50That is the moment where Rupert has come around to Trump.
17:54Trump realizes that he needs Fox News. They need each other.
17:59This moment will change the fate of American media and American politics for the decades that followed.
18:16Around this time, Rupert marries Jerry Hall.
18:21Media mogul Rupert Murdoch says he is the happiest man in the world after he married former supermodel Jerry Hall.
18:27Jerry Hall was previously in a long-term relationship with Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger.
18:34James and Lachlan, Prue and Liz all go to the wedding. They like Jerry Hall.
18:40Good morning.
18:42It's maybe the last thing they really come together to do as a family.
18:49How was the ceremony?
18:52For the first time in decades, Rupert tries to have a life with his wife.
19:01He's in love.
19:03So he lets his sons run this media empire without him.
19:08It was an opportunity for both of them to assert themselves as the heads of the company, the new Murdochs
19:15that everyone has to contend with.
19:19And it coincides with the Sun Valley Conference, which happens every July.
19:26It is a busy time in Sun Valley. Top media tech and business moguls converged in Cedic, Idaho for a
19:32meeting of the minds.
19:33The masters of the universe get together and figure out what the world is going to see, hear and read.
19:40And this year, for the first time, James and Lachlan go on their own.
19:46Hey, Lachlan.
19:48Hey.
19:48Good morning.
19:49Good morning, James.
19:50Good morning.
19:51It's supposed to be James and Lachlan's coming out party as the new faces of the Murdoch media empire.
19:58But pretty quickly things go off the rails.
20:02A media and political bombshell.
20:04Swelling controversy at Fox News.
20:07Former anchor Gretchen Carlson alleges she was fired after turning down sexual advances from Fox News chairman and CEO Roger
20:14Ailes.
20:16We were in a car and he took my head and my neck and he shoved my face into his
20:22crotch.
20:24At this moment, Rupert Murdoch is on a plane. He's unreachable by phone.
20:29Now they have a crisis, but maybe the one thing James and Lachlan agree on is that Roger Ailes is
20:36bad news.
20:38They both had been wrong by Roger Ailes. He had mocked James. He had undercut Lachlan.
20:45And they saw an opening when the Me Too movement started to gather steam to essentially take Roger Ailes out.
20:56Very quickly, they announced an investigation of the claims in the lawsuit.
21:01It's very clear what the right thing to do is. You have to actually get to the bottom of it.
21:05You have to do it super fast.
21:06And put out a release about it before Rupert could contradict them.
21:09We hired an independent law firm to go in and investigate all the allegations.
21:14And then other women started to come out of the woodwork.
21:18Megan Kelly reportedly told investigators that he had made similar sexual advances towards her.
21:23Ailes repeatedly called Roginski into his office.
21:27Lori Loon says she was sexually harassed and intimidated by Ailes.
21:33Roger would often talk about women's bodies. He would ask if I was naughty.
21:39I mean, there were all sorts of just kind of gross, really inappropriate things that he would say.
21:45I had gone to him to ask for more opportunity. I had wanted to anchor.
21:50And he said, well, you're not ready yet, so I would have to work with you.
21:55And he said, it might have to happen on the weekends. It might have to happen at a hotel.
22:00In that moment, I had sort of an out-of-body experience of, oh, is my career over?
22:08And then by the time I moved to New York, I was married and pregnant with twins.
22:13And he didn't say things like that anymore.
22:17Rupert loved Ailes because Ailes was a programming genius.
22:21So he turned a blind eye to some of the things that Ailes was doing.
22:26Can you comment about the situation with Roger Ailes?
22:31I had figured Ailes would survive this.
22:33Fox News is making so much money.
22:36All they're going to do is they're going to pay off the women.
22:39As more and more people stepped forward,
22:42I got the sense that Murdoch didn't like this kind of attention,
22:46didn't want his profitable news channel to have this sort of reputation.
22:51So he makes a fateful decision that will change the entire dynamic of the company.
22:57Breaking news.
22:59A media bombshell.
23:00And it's not inappropriate that I'm sitting at the Republican National Convention as it happens.
23:04Roger Ailes, the chairman, CEO, and mastermind of Fox News Channel, he's now officially out.
23:11Ailes was out right as the Republican Convention was going on.
23:16It was really a revenge moment for James and Lachlan.
23:20I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.
23:30Once Ailes was gone, there was an internal debate over the direction that Fox News goes.
23:38I think the feeling within the company was that Roger Ailes was Fox News.
23:43And that without him, it might not even be able to survive and certainly would not thrive.
23:49What we need to do is make careful decisions that we're exploiting the product that we have in as robust
23:56a way as possible.
23:57And we're also going to get the widest possible audience.
24:00James was much more liberal leaning.
24:03He wanted Fox to appeal to a younger audience.
24:07And he sees this moment as an opportunity to steer the network toward less right-wing politics and a more
24:17fact-based approach to journalism.
24:20Lachlan, meanwhile, is adamantly opposed to this idea.
24:24Lachlan's political stripe was very conservative, as was Rupert's.
24:30And Lachlan wants what's good for business.
24:34They have the number one cable network.
24:37Two billion dollars in profit.
24:39Fox is killing it.
24:41The brothers argue ferociously.
24:45And Rupert finally settles the matter by saying that he himself will step in as acting CEO.
24:54Rupert is tremendously proud of Fox News.
24:57And he thinks that it is giving a voice to people that have not had a voice traditionally in media.
25:04So he was not going to change the trajectory of Fox News.
25:09And in fact, he yanks it further to the right.
25:13And Fox News becomes the cornerstone of his influence politically in the United States.
25:19We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own country
25:24poorer and dirtier and more divided.
25:27Under Rupert's supervision, Fox News becomes even more reckless and unhinged.
25:34He really let the talent run wild.
25:37We've got the liberal crybaby snowflakes.
25:40Refugees pouring and now infecting Europe.
25:42There are no guardrails, there's no accountability.
25:45Legal immigrants, I mean, isn't that worse? The government checked you guys out and let you in?
25:50What matters were the ratings.
25:53And Rupert knows that the Fox audience cares about opinion.
25:58He knew it was good business because that's what they wanted to hear.
26:01This is the battle royale that goes on inside Fox and with the Murdochs, which is, are we just about
26:06the bottom line and keeping the audience happy?
26:09Or do we have some conscience about what we're peddling?
26:14Let's talk about Fox News.
26:16Is Fox News fair and balanced?
26:19Look, I mean, I think the leadership at Fox News, you know, makes decisions around how they hire and what
26:23they do.
26:24I try not to get too much into that. I'm the chief executive of the company.
26:27James feels no ability to shape the coverage, to tell them to be more responsible.
26:34Slaves that worked there were well fed and had decent lodgings provided by the government.
26:41Privately, James seems to become more and more ethically uncomfortable with what the role requires.
26:55For James, the breaking point comes with Charlottesville.
26:59I think there's blame on both sides and I have no doubt about it and you don't have any doubt
27:04about it either.
27:05You also had people that were very fine people on both sides.
27:11James watches as Donald Trump holds a press conference and he watches Fox News' coverage of all of it.
27:19President Trump told some truths. Yes, there are a lot of truths here. There was both sides causing violence.
27:25This line to me is so important. He said, we are all Americans first.
27:29And sees how Fox News is breathlessly defending Trump.
27:35We condemn all violence. That's what President Trump said.
27:39And all lives matter. If you don't agree with that, you're a racist.
27:43It really just eats at James.
27:48As he's trying to decide what to do about all of this, his wife Catherine asks him a clarifying question.
27:55You know, if you're not going to stand up to Nazis, who are you going to stand up to?
28:01Last night, 20th Century Fox CEO James Murdoch slammed the president's response.
28:07An email from Murdoch said there are no good Nazis, Klansmen or terrorists.
28:13James puts out his own statement without clearing it with anyone.
28:17It is a stinging rebuke and repudiation of Fox News.
28:23That statement drives a further wedge between him and Rupert.
28:29James really believes that his vision for the company is better for the bottom line.
28:36And that it's much too risky and reckless to continue running these news outlets the way that they've been run.
28:43And he thinks that his father and brother, whatever their politics, should see that.
28:49And yet, by the end of 2017, James' proposed initiatives are going nowhere.
28:54The market was changing.
28:56We're moving to a video entertainment business that is 100% consumed over IP networks.
29:02Streaming is the next frontier.
29:05Digital giants like Amazon and Netflix are pushing another revolution in viewing habits by investing billions in programs.
29:12Fox did not have the heft to go up against Netflix, Amazon, Apple, all of these well-funded companies.
29:18So, James wants to try yet again to buy the rest of BSkyB.
29:24That's an $11 billion deal.
29:26He believes that if he's able to bring BSkyB into the fold, they could survive in this brave new world.
29:34And just as they are ready to try to negotiate that, another major scandal comes out.
29:43Bill!
29:45Bill O'Reilly faces questions this morning about harassment allegations.
29:48O'Reilly paid a $32 million settlement to Liz Wheel, a former Fox News analyst.
29:54Wendy Walsh, a former Fox contributor, claims O'Reilly harassed her.
29:58Bill O'Reilly has been sexually harassing people who work for him for years.
30:04And the Murdochs secretly paid off some of those women even after James and Lachlan promised they were going to
30:12clean up the company.
30:13The biggest star of cable news was forced out yesterday from his top-rated show.
30:18Together, O'Reilly and Ailes were paid $65 million to lead.
30:22The women who accused them so far, $33 million.
30:26Fox had made a big show of how they are going to have a cleaned-up culture.
30:33But this scandal just reminds everyone of the dirty underbelly of the Murdoch Empire.
30:41The Fox News controversies very much get in the way of their broader ambitions.
30:46Potentially at risk, its attempt to buy Europe's pay TV giant Sky.
30:51Ofcom, the communications regulator, decides, are these people fit and proper persons to hold a TV license?
30:59Do you have any concerns about what Ofcom might say about what's happening at Fox News?
31:03Nothing happening at Fox News.
31:04Nothing, okay?
31:07Regulators in the UK were outraged.
31:10It would have been a terrific deal, and it probably would have sealed James's succession if it had gone through.
31:15But it doesn't.
31:19They had tried to grow. They'd gone after V-Sky-B and failed to do that.
31:26And so, without telling his children, Rupert calls Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney.
31:34Bob Iger, over the past 20 years, had been a grower.
31:39Well, I think Star Wars has had a great impact on Disney.
31:43He had successfully bought Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel, to position Disney for the streaming wars.
31:52Rupert and Iger went to the winery that Rupert owns in Bel Air.
31:58They had some glasses of Pinot, I am told.
32:02And Rupert proposes doing something that, for longtime Murdoch watchers, seems absolutely unthinkable.
32:11Rupert presents the defining deal of his life.
32:15Selling the bulk of the film and television assets of 21st Century Fox to Disney for 50-odd billion.
32:24Fox had Avatar, The X-Men, FX, Nat Geo.
32:30All these would be additive for Disney.
32:35One night at Gramercy Tavern in New York,
32:40Rupert, Lachlan, and James were all eating together and discussing the Disney deal.
32:46James was very supportive of the deal.
32:49He was sick of being associated with Fox News.
32:51He felt like all of the changes he wanted to make to modernize and reform the companies fell on deaf
32:59ears.
33:00And he also saw this as a way to set himself up as potentially the next CEO after Iger left.
33:08But Lachlan was extremely upset.
33:12Lachlan likes having a big Hollywood studio.
33:14He didn't come back to run a shaved-down company.
33:17He started ranting and raving and saying it was completely unfair that Rupert and James were pursuing this sale over
33:28his objections.
33:29And finally gave them an ultimatum and said to his dad, if you go through with this deal, you will
33:38not have a son.
33:39And then he turned to James and said, and you won't have a brother.
33:42And then he stormed out of the restaurant.
33:45And in recounting that at the trial, James said Lachlan's prophecy was right, that a brother and son would be
33:54lost over this deal, and called this the Oracle of Delphi moment.
34:02Rupert's facing one of the biggest decisions in his career.
34:10Things are still very much up in the air when Rupert and his then-wife, Jerry Hall, are on vacation
34:17in the Caribbean on Lachlan's yacht, the Sarissa.
34:24You know, Lachlan's yacht is custom designed.
34:27It has a climbing wall.
34:29The cabin turns into a nighttime sky with the constellations and the galaxy.
34:34And it's also a racing boat, so it's built to move quickly.
34:40And one night, Rupert gets up to go to the bathroom.
34:43He trips.
34:45And he can't get up.
34:47He had suffered a broken back.
34:49He had to be evacuated by helicopter.
34:52And hospitalized.
34:55It becomes apparent that to fix his back will be to risk his life.
35:00That the procedure they have to do could kill him.
35:04Jerry Hall calls Rupert's children and says, your father is severely injured and may die.
35:12You probably need to get to his bedside and make whatever piece you can with him or you want to
35:16with him.
35:18They rush to his bedside.
35:20The family is operating as if this might be it.
35:24This is also setting in motion the possibility that the four children are going to have to fight it out
35:29for control.
35:31There was this awareness among everybody that, you know, that day could be coming soon.
35:37I mean, it could be coming now.
35:39You have said you would like to have a member of the family succeed you.
35:43They've got to prove themselves too.
35:47There wasn't a clear plan what would happen if Rupert was to die.
35:51I hope to be able to leave them a great opportunity like my father left me.
35:57All the signs are they want it very much.
35:59In the background is always the trust.
36:04Succession.
36:05Who's going to prevail?
36:08So there's a lot riding on Rupert's recovery.
36:15Of course, he's Rupert. He does.
36:18He even joked they can't kill me. Stronger than ever.
36:21Rupert Murdoch is laid up in bed and working from home.
36:25Rupert recovered.
36:27And he ended up selling to Disney.
36:29How did you get Rupert to sell some of the crown jewels?
36:33A year ago, I didn't see this one coming either, nor did I see it coming six months ago.
36:37The 20th Century Fox film studio, the television studios they own, and the cable networks went to Disney.
36:47Getting the price he did was a great deal.
36:51Each of the siblings got about $2 billion in cash.
36:56Lachlan is happy.
36:58He will say that he previously really just opposed the deal on the basis of price.
37:04And it allowed Rupert and Lachlan to keep the asset that they really care about, which is Fox News.
37:12But ultimately, it was very devastating for James.
37:16Fox announcing its leadership for the new Fox.
37:19Lachlan Murdoch will serve as chairman and CEO of the company.
37:23Rupert Murdoch will serve as co-chairman.
37:26Rupert made it clear there was no role for James at Fox.
37:30And in the end, there was no role for James at Disney.
37:34There's been a lot of speculation that you were agitating for a place for him on the Disney boards.
37:38No, no, no, no. There's no conditions like that.
37:43Rupert was convinced that James was angling to get himself a job at Disney out of these negotiations.
37:51It infuriated him.
37:53And Rupert actually called Iger himself and said,
37:57Don't give my son a job.
38:00And I think that this was born out of Rupert's concern that James was not negotiating entirely out of the
38:09interest of the company, but was thinking about himself.
38:14Lachlan's prophecy that a brother and son would be lost over this deal was right.
38:19But it wouldn't be Lachlan. It was James.
38:22The sale of Fox to Disney effectively made you a very wealthy free agent.
38:27Do you think there's ever a future in which you would go back to Fox?
38:30I don't think so. I think they're off doing their own thing there.
38:34My brother and my father run that and that's over there and I'm not worried about it.
38:38And you don't communicate with them about it?
38:40About business, no.
38:44James leaves the news corporation board.
38:47And the relationship with the rest of the family suffers.
38:52Rupert sees attitudes in James that he sensed as weakness in other people.
38:57He sees Lachlan now as the last remaining steward of the family business and he wants Lachlan to have control
39:05when he's gone.
39:07Breaking news this morning.
39:09Rupert Murdoch is to step back from the global media empire that he built over seven decades.
39:14Rupert Murdoch is retiring.
39:17When Rupert finally retired in 2023, I was surprised because it had always been said about Rupert he would be
39:25carried out of the box.
39:27He would never retire.
39:29But now in retrospect, it's clear that by making his announcement, he was trying to underline as heavily as he
39:36could that Lachlan was the one he wanted to take over the whole thing.
39:40His son Lachlan will become the sole chairman of both Fox and News Corporation, with the billionaire now taking on
39:47the honorary title of chairman emeritus.
39:51This is real life succession.
39:53Now Lachlan is the one who is the heir apparent.
39:57What most people are thinking about when they think of succession is who's the next CEO going to be.
40:02And in a family owned business, you often assume that a family member will be the next CEO.
40:07They'll have ultimate control.
40:09But in fact, the real power lies in ownership.
40:14Rupert had come to believe that James and his sisters are going to link arms and take control of the
40:23family empire, boot Lachlan from the corner office, defang Rupert's conservative media outlets and, you know, turn Fox News into
40:32MSNBC.
40:34Good morning. Anybody have any comment this morning?
40:38So what Rupert's thinking is, if he doesn't win this trial, and if he doesn't get the trust built around
40:46Lachlan, it's like he never existed.
40:53There is also billions of dollars at stake, and there is pride at stake, and there is a father's affection
40:59and respect at stake.
41:01And so when James and Lachlan take the stand, their history of betrayal, of bitterness, of backstabbing is front and
41:09center.
41:10Mr. Murdoch, are you confident of victory?
41:14What becomes clear over the course of Lachlan's testimony is he feels a great sense of betrayal by his brother.
41:22For years, he has felt that James had been seeding stories in the media about how James was planning to
41:33one day push him out.
41:35You know, he says on the stand at one point, thousands of stories, there have been thousands of stories about
41:40this, and that James has never come out and said, I support your leadership.
41:47And he says, it would have been the right thing to do, it would have been the decent thing to
41:51do.
41:52The fact that it didn't happen, it fuels Lachlan's paranoia.
41:58On the stand, James steadfastly denied all of that.
42:03Again and again, he said, no, I wasn't planning, no, there was no plotting.
42:09James would say that this was a fevered conspiracy theory that Lachlan and Rupert had cooked up to rationalize the
42:17aggressive moves that they would take
42:19to make Lachlan the successor and ensure Rupert's legacy.
42:26At some point at the trial, he was asked about years of internal Murdoch family communications, texts and emails, all
42:35this stuff that had come out in Discovery.
42:37The communication showed that they see him as just this pious, nagging liberal who was throwing his politics in everybody's
42:46face.
42:46And when James is reading these texts from his dad to his sisters and his brother, he became emotional and
42:55actually started to cry on the stand.
42:58This is his dad and his brother who he's loved and he thought loved him.
43:04It laid bare just how far apart he and his father were in terms of their visions for the company,
43:12how they saw the world, what they believe the Murdoch name should mean.
43:18And just how calculating and manipulative his father could be.
43:25Now the decision about who will run News Corp will rest with a judge.
43:33I don't think anyone had any idea who was going to win this case.
43:38So we are constantly working our sources.
43:42We're vaguely picking up that each side feels pretty good.
43:46But this is Rupert Murdoch.
43:48He's one of the richest men on earth, one of the savviest men on earth.
43:53We just had a sense that maybe Rupert would pull this out because he's Rupert.
43:59So we're waiting.
44:01And then in December, we find out the judge has ruled.
44:09Our top story tonight, Rupert Murdoch has just lost his bid to alter a family trust.
44:16Rupert and Lachlan lost on every single count.
44:19How'd it go, Lachlan? You feeling good?
44:21Any comment, Mr. Murdoch?
44:23It was kind of shocking.
44:25Not only that Rupert lost, but that the judge found this whole thing so unseemly.
44:31The plan was deemed basically a charade.
44:34The judge in this case said Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch acted in bad faith.
44:39It's just a complete repudiation of everything they said in court.
44:43Basically that this was a ruse meant to carry on Rupert's legacy through his son.
44:52For James and Liz and Prue, this is vindication.
44:57This was about as resounding and validating a victory as you could have.
45:07Shortly after the trial was over, Rupert and Lachlan were together on the ancestral Murdoch ranch in rural Australia,
45:18talking about how their scheme had fallen apart and plotting their next move.
45:25We knew there was an appeal coming from Rupert and Lachlan,
45:28but the commissioner's ruling was so definitive that we couldn't see how they could possibly pull something off.
45:39Typically, what happens in these cases is the state judge would rubber stamp the commissioner's decision and reject the appeal.
45:47And so when the judge calls for oral arguments, James, Liz and Prue do not go, they don't take this
45:54seriously.
45:56But Lachlan and Rupert are there.
46:00Lachlan's lawyer argues that Lachlan has been running the company.
46:04It's doing very well financially.
46:05And it's best for the heirs, for everyone's financial interest, to lock in Lachlan's control.
46:11And the way that the judge is responding, it becomes clear that they were open to the argument that Rupert
46:18had a right to change the trust.
46:20The door is open at least a crack.
46:24That can only mean one thing if you're James, Liz and Prue.
46:28Maybe your victory is not going to be a lasting one.
46:31And that this coup to disenfranchise them and take away their power might actually happen.
46:37That changes the dynamic.
46:40It was time to talk about a price.
46:44Rupert had always said to Lachlan,
46:46bet on yourself, buy your siblings out.
46:49But Lachlan always seemed hesitant.
46:53He never put up the big money.
46:55And so Project Family Harmony, which Lachlan initiated, was a way for Lachlan to get it for free.
47:02To get control of the company without buying his siblings out.
47:05But if Rupert and Lachlan were serious about keeping control of Fox News...
47:10James and his sisters are gonna need top dollar.
47:14Talks were ongoing.
47:16And by the beginning of September, they had an agreement in place.
47:22The price was finally right.
47:24It looks like things are good.
47:26But for these two brothers, the acrimony is so high that it threatened to scuttle everything.
47:34And that's because Lachlan, who's still furious about this commissioner's ruling in December,
47:39he wants an agreement that the commissioner's ruling has been vacated.
47:44James wanted this ruling to live on as proof that he had beaten his brother.
47:49For James and Lachlan, you know, the jockeying to be the winner,
47:53this is what has defined their entire lives.
47:57In the end, cooler heads prevail.
48:00They find some compromise language, kind of like, okay, we're moving on from that case.
48:05It's all silly.
48:07But I guess it was like a point of pride.
48:09That's how this family interacts.
48:11I mean, it's like, it's nuts.
48:12But it's true.
48:14The battle for control of the Murdoch news empire has been won.
48:20Rupert Murdoch's family has reached a deal which will see the eldest son, Lachlan,
48:24take complete power when the 94-year-old media mogul dies.
48:28Three of Lachlan's siblings will receive huge payouts for their shares
48:32and will step away from their roles at both News Corp and Fox.
48:35The three siblings are going to be fully out of the trust.
48:39They are going to get, between them, $3.3 billion.
48:43A lot of people were stunned.
48:45There was a view, certainly among liberal critics, that James, Prue, and Liz sold out,
48:52that they took the money and ran.
48:55They thought that James would never sell out, that he was planning to keep his shares
48:59so that he could topple Lachlan and transform Fox News.
49:04I think it was always in James's financial interest to encourage that perception.
49:09But I think, at the end of the day, what he really wanted was to get as much money
49:13as he could squeeze out of his father and brother.
49:16A new family trust will be formed for Lachlan and his two younger sisters, Grace and Chloe,
49:21that will hold controlling stakes in Fox and News Corp, with Lachlan controlling the votes.
49:26The two youngest children will become beneficiaries of the trust, but with no voting power.
49:32For Lachlan to get control, he needed to have Grace and Chloe's shares.
49:38Wendy helped Rupert to persuade the girls to just come along.
49:42You will still get your dividends, give Lachlan all the voting power.
49:47But when the new trust expires in 2050, Lachlan will be in his 70s,
49:52and Grace and Chloe will be fully formed adults who may want more control over the company.
49:58Who knows? This is the Murdochs.
50:04The succession battle is over, and both sides are claiming victory.
50:09But I think you have to say that Lachlan and Rupert won,
50:15because Lachlan is going to be in control of this empire until 2050.
50:19James and his sisters, they got more money, yes,
50:23but it's hard to see this as a victory when you already have billions of dollars
50:28and you've just added another billion.
50:30Whereas Lachlan actually got something here that he didn't have,
50:33which was control of this company.
50:36But for all this talk of winning, they all lost.
50:40They've got their billions, but they've lost their family.
50:43And that is what being a Murdoch really cost them.
50:49How would you describe your dad?
50:51Well, I think the shows make him look dark and sinister.
50:55And really, he's a really nice person, a fun person.
51:00Sometimes, eh? Yeah.
51:01Tell me about some of the kind of things that you would disagree with him about,
51:05and how you deal with it.
51:08We don't have long enough.
51:11How important is it that the news corporation today family has?
51:15To whom? How important to whom is the question?
51:21I think what he's done with all of his children
51:23is throw them in the deep end, give them great challenges,
51:27and expect them to achieve in those challenges.
51:32Is there a personal price that you're bound to have to pay?
51:36I think so, yes.
51:37I think so, yes.
51:38This is an all-consuming life.
51:42And, um...
51:45You know, that's really all I can say about it.
52:16It's time to be placed on place.
52:16I can see it all from Atstarters.
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