Why Rupert Murdoch has blown up his favourite son’s future

Rupert Murdoch’s move to squeeze three of his four eldest children out of controlling his media empire was arguably the biggest dice-roll of his 70-year business career. He failed.

The hubris that made him believe safeguarding his legacy as a media mogul was more important than the future of his family will reverberate.

James (left), Elisabeth, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch in happier times.Credit: Getty Images

The risks for Rupert were enormous: win or lose, he stood to blow up the already fraying fabric of the Murdoch family. But a loss has added the venom of galvanising three of his children (Prudence, Elisabeth and James) against his firstborn son and anointed successor, Lachlan.

Perhaps the most indefensible element of Murdoch’s attempt to remove three of his children’s say in the empire’s future, and eliminate family democracy, was that he was punting Lachlan’s future as head of the business.

While Rupert would argue that his legacy is important, he clearly won’t be around to deal with the aftermath of family destruction that has been wreaked by his insistence on installing Lachlan as sole controller of the $US42 billion ($66 billion) News Corporation empire.

The irony is that this plan to anoint Lachlan, which has ended as an incendiary device ready to blow the Murdoch family apart, was code-named “Project Family Harmony”. Now, a month from his 94th birthday, Rupert will probably spend his remaining years enduring various degrees of estrangement from all but one of his four eldest children.

The mogul is no stranger to shifting allegiances with his children, having played Russian roulette with his relationships with them for decades. As a master puppeteer, Rupert exercised control over Lachlan, James and Elisabeth by dangling the prospect of one of them becoming ultimate ruler.

It was an enticing drug for these children. For example, when James was professionally injured after his role in running the British division at the time of the phone-hacking affair, it was Elisabeth who suggested he needed to take one for team Murdoch.

As it turns out, it was her father who gave her the gun and pointed her in the direction of the barn.

Elisabeth Murdoch (left) and James Murdoch (centre) arrive for the second day of probate court hearings in Reno, Nevada, in September.Credit: NYT

So Rupert has already had a taste of how some of this plays out, given he has had virtually no relationship with James for more than a decade. But for the two publicly listed companies that are the backbone of his empire, there looms an uncertain future around governance and strategic direction.

With The New York Times publishing communications between family members and a transcript of the proceedings of the behind-closed-doors hearing in a Reno courtroom last year, family laundry doesn’t get much dirtier or more public than this for a dynasty that has dominated the media landscape for decades.

The leaked documents paint a picture of fury and hurt, felt particularly by Murdoch’s two older daughters after being informed of the secret moves by Rupert and Lachlan to legally challenge the voting rights of the family trust that holds the controlling stake in both Fox Corp and News Corp.

Firstborn Prudence made her thoughts on the family trust coup clear. She said Rupert couldn’t treat her and Liz like “his assistants”, and warned him about what might happen if he didn’t reconsider: “You already lost one son. And you could well lose two daughters over this.”

‘You think there’s going to be consensus with a gun to our head?’

Elisabeth Murdoch

His daughter Elisabeth was equally incensed. She took the view that she had toed the family’s party line for years, unlike her brother James, even if she had privately not agreed with particular decisions or directions.

She described the secret move to change the trust as a “massive gut punch” and begged her brother to try to persuade their father to reconsider, the Times reported.

Furthermore, she taped a meeting called to discuss the changes to the trust – during which she accused her father and brother of “raping” the family company. “You think there’s going to be consensus with a gun to our head?” she said. “If you think that’s harmony, we must be in North Korea.”

The documents also reveal the two sisters’ appalled response to the appointment of former Australian and conservative prime minister Tony Abbott to the board of Fox.

What the documents don’t show is any certainty that Murdoch’s eldest two daughters wouldn’t have supported Lachlan’s remaining in charge. Certainly, James was a clear critic of the way Lachlan’s position had become a facsimile of his father’s, but he was only one vote.

The sisters had looked for a compromise in an attempt to tone down the more extreme views taken by Fox while still allowing it to remain a voice for US conservatives.

Rupert’s gamble, aided by Lachlan, has blown any chance of a reconciliation out of the water.

It looks like the post-Rupert era for News Corp and Fox will be Lachlan against the rest of the Murdoch clan.

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