Murdoch in Rare Oval Office Appearance
Rupert Murdoch Joins Trump in Oval Office, Dumbest Trade Deal Ever, Larry Ellison heading $500 billion 'Project Stargate', News Corporation succession battle, Fates of Murdoch Family media empire.
Rupert Murdoch Joins Trump in Oval Office, Too
The Fox mogul made the pilgrimage to the White House to stand where plenty of tech executives have made a pointed show of teaming with the president.
By Erik Hayden
It’s not just tech moguls that can get face time with Donald Trump in the White House.
Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, made his way to the Oval Office on Monday.
It’s a notable show of influence by a legacy media executive at a time when it seems like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have been pointedly showing off their access to the new administration.
Murdoch, who formally stepped back as the chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. in 2023 but who still wields outsized influence, watched as Trump signed a series of executive orders and parried with press about the particulars (like, for instance, a new sovereign U.S. wealth fund that could be set up and could be in the running to buy TikTok).
Asked about the presence of the 93-year-old media mogul and what he’d discuss with him, Trump demurred, sort of.
“Just respect, I have great respect for Rupert Murdoch. I disagree with him a lot of times with The Wall Street Journal but it’s all right. We’ve disagreed before. And I’m sure they didn’t have any idea what they were talking about,” Trump told reporters.
Presumably, the president was referencing a piece by The Wall Street Journal editorial board, the opinion section that ultimately reports to ownership, titled “The Dumbest Trade War in History,” about Trump’s tariffs battle with Canada and Mexico.
Larry Ellison — who was at the White House on Jan. 21 to help unveil the $500 billion Stargate artificial intelligence infrastructure initiative (that may need get reworked post-DeepSeek) — also was present in the Oval Office on Monday for the executive order signing on the sovereign wealth fund, seated next to Murdoch.
Trump, in an aside to reporters, was favorable with his flattery today, calling Ellison and Murdoch, “the most powerful people in the world” and “legends in business.”
The fight for the future of the Murdoch media empire is about to begin
Source: AOL
The battle for Rupert Murdoch’s global media kingdom is headed to the biggest little city in the world.
Murdoch, the 93-year-old billionaire press baron, reportedly wants to alter the terms of an irrevocable trust so that his eldest son, Lachlan, inherits his throne and keeps control of prized assets such as Fox News and The Wall Street Journal. But three of the mogul’s other children — James, Elisabeth and Prudence — are pushing back, insisting that all four siblings continue to receive equal voting shares.
The family feud goes before a judge at the Washoe County Courthouse in Reno, Nevada, next week, but the proceedings and case filings are shrouded in secrecy. Alicia L. Lerud, an administrator at the Second Judicial District Court, confirmed to NBC News that the Murdoch matter is under seal and “confidential pursuant to court order.” (Reno probate court frequently deals with family trusts and estates.)
In late July, however, The New York Times published an article based on a copy of a sealed court document laying out some of the case’s key issues. NBC News has not independently seen the document or confirmed its authenticity. Gary A. Bornstein, the litigator representing the three siblings, and Adam Streisand, the lawyer representing their father, did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
Murdoch is one of the most powerful and influential media titans of the modern age. He built a small Australian newspaper business into a mighty collection of broadcast and cable television properties. The crown jewel remains Fox News, a pillar of the American conservative movement and home to high-profile opinion hosts who staunchly defend former President Donald Trump.
The palace intrigue inside the Murdoch family has often lent itself to breathless public fascination, inspiring the HBO series “Succession” and behind-the-scenes books.
The family is divided partly by differences in political opinion — and how those beliefs could shape the future of its sprawling media empire. Lachlan Murdoch, who took over as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. last September, tends to be more aligned with his father’s conservative worldview.
James Murdoch, Elisabeth Murdoch and Prudence Murdoch are believed to be more politically moderate. James Murdoch has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential candidacy, and Federal Election Commission records show he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democratic congressional candidates and Democratic state parties.
The Times, citing the court document, reported that the elder Murdoch believes the “lack of consensus” among the four children “would impact the strategic direction at both companies including a potential reorientation of editorial policy and content.” The mogul filed a petition to amend the trust as he seeks to “consolidate decision-making power in Lachlan’s hands and give him permanent, exclusive control.”
Nevada’s probate commissioner found in June that Murdoch could change the irrevocable trust if the wealthy patriarch was able to demonstrate he was acting in good faith, for the sole benefit of his heirs, according to a copy of the 48-page decision cited by The Times. (Murdoch has two other children, both in their early 20s, from his third of five marriages.)
In the event Lachlan Murdoch cements control of the corporate properties, Fox News’ opinion programming will likely continue to be solidly conservative and a major influence on Republican politics.
Fox News has been tightly linked with Trump in recent years. The company was sued by Dominion Voting Systems for airing baseless claims of vote-rigging after the 2020 election. The two sides ultimately settled for $787.5 million, heading off a jury trial.
“Rupert Murdoch has always been good at harmonising his business interests and his ideological goals, and he seems to view Lachlan as the one sibling who can thread that needle,” said Reece Peck, an associate professor of media culture at the City University of New York-College of Staten Island and the author of “Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class.”
The succession drama — a real-world blend of “King Lear” and prestige TV — promises to draw significant interest from players in the overlapping realms of media, entertainment, politics and corporate power. That’s partly why a coalition of major news organizations recently filed a petition to make the secret proceedings open to the public.
Six news companies — The Associated Press, CNN, National Public Radio, The New York Times, Reuters and The Washington Post — banded together “seeking access to court proceedings and the unsealing of, and access to, court records and filings and in this matter,” according to a legal filing shared with NBC News by a spokesperson for The Times.
“The fate of the Murdoch Family’s enormous fortune and vast media empire is a matter of immense public interest, and the public also has an interest in ensuring that public courts administer justice in a proper, impartial manner,” the document says in part.
National newsrooms are not alone in their quest to make the Murdoch proceedings more transparent. Alex Falconi, a Nevada software engineer and advocate for courtroom access, filed his own petition to Washoe County Judge David Hardy requesting the placement of a camera in the courtroom. (Faconi’s effort was first reported by the news website Puck.)
“Trust cases are usually of no interest to the public,” Falconi said in an email, but “this case presents a rare opportunity to show Nevadans how trust cases work due to the high level of public interest.”
Lerud, the court administrator, said she could not comment on Falconi’s petition because the Nevada Code of Judicial Conduct bars court judges and officers from weighing in on “individual matters pending before the Court.”
It was not clear whether Falconi’s petition had been formally rejected. Falconi said he would file an emergency petition in the event his request is denied.
The Second Judicial District Court plans to keep the general public updated on the case in at least one way: a webpage listing key dates in the trial. The page shows that a status conference is scheduled for 1 p.m. local time Tuesday, followed by an evidentiary hearing at 9 a.m. local time Sept. 16.
But a layperson would never know the webpage concerned one of the most formidable families in American media; there are no names or other identifying information. The keys to the Murdoch kingdom are here known simply as “Doe 1 Trust.”
https://www.aol.com/news/fight-future-murdoch-media-empire-090000476.html
Murdoch family drama
Mogul’s death could imitate art
Source: The Guardian (London)
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” begins Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina. This is an appropriate lens to view Rupert Murdoch’s semi-public family feud. This week, it emergedthat the media mogul had lost the first round in his legal bid to secure his empire for Lachlan, his eldest son and anointed heir, over his other children – James, Elisabeth and Prudence. More than a power play, it was Murdoch’s final push to secure his rightwing media vision, even at the expense of family unity.
The familial strife – driven by blurred lines between business and family, ideological clashes and a patriarch’s weakening grip – exemplifies Tolstoy’s “unique unhappiness”. The Murdochs’ conflicts are shaped by their extraordinary wealth, influence and public scrutiny. The divisions could paralyse corporate decision making, destabilising a media empire with significant repercussions for the culture and politics of the Anglosphere.
The battle to change the terms of the Murdochs’ irrevocable family trust is very much an internal family affair. Rupert Murdoch’s six children share equal stakes in the family trust, but his youngest daughters, Chloe and Grace, lack voting rights. For now, Mr Murdoch holds ultimate control, with voting power split between him and his four eldest children. After his death, it had been assumed that they would each get one vote and would have to work out the division of labour between themselves.
The trust controls the Murdoch empire, split between Fox – home to the TV news network accused of rightwing bias and false reporting as well as its broadcast and cable business – and News Corp, which owns US titles such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post; the Times and the Sun in the UK; and more than half of Australia’s biggest dailies.
At the centre of the struggle is Fox News, a $20bn media behemoth central to US conservative politics and Donald Trump’s rise. Mr Murdoch, and Lachlan, pushed Fox sharply rightward, alienating Lachlan’s siblings and leading to a $790m defamation settlement over election falsehoods. Mr Murdoch’s younger son, James, who had been passed over in favour of Lachlan, takes the hardest line against Fox.
In April 2023, Mr Murdoch’s children began planning for his death, spurred by an episode of HBO’s Succession – a thinly veiled take on their own family – where a patriarch’s death sparks chaos. Alarmed by the parallels, Elisabeth’s team drafted a “Succession memo” to avoid art becoming reality. But Lachlan, and his father, moved to head off the proposals by seeking to amend the trust to cement his primacy.
Dubbed, ironically, “Project Family Harmony”, it labelled James as the “troublesome beneficiary”. In a Reno courtroom, a probate commissioner found Mr Murdoch had acted in “bad faith”.
Mr Murdoch will appeal, but the cost is clear: further estrangement from three of his children. Only Lachlan attended his summer wedding to his fifthwife. Mr Murdoch may fail to amend the trust. That would raise the stakes, posthumously. Lachlan might try to buy out his siblings; James and Elisabeth could push to reshape or dismantle Fox News. Selling assets could end tensions but dismantle the legacy Mr Murdoch built – one in which personal ambition and corporate control are entwined.
This leading article was not filed on the days on which NUJ members in the UK were on strike.
Talk of a new record for the Sydney to Hobart race was buzzing round Australia last night as a new American yacht, the 75-foot Sayonara, owned by Larry Ellison, with Rupert Murdoch as one of his crew, hammered its way south.
Ellison's closest rival was the 69-foot Foxtel Amazon, skippered by Peter Walker and sponsored by Murdoch's cable channel in Australia. Foxtel Amazon used her blistering downwind performance to close to within 200 metres after seven hours averaging 12.48 knots.
Murdoch's interest in yachting extends back to the 1960s, when he competed in the Sydney-Hobart race with his yacht, Ilina. He was also a spectator at this year's America's Cup in San Diego on his massive ketch.
The target for the 630 miles to the capital of Tasmania is the time of two days 14 hours 36 minutes and 56 seconds set in 1975 by another American, Jim Kilroy, in his maxi, Kialoa III.
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/ellison-in-pursuit-of-record-1527405.html
Oracle chief wins deadly yacht race
1998-12-29 04:00:00 PDT AUSTRALIA -- Silicon Valley software titan Larry Ellison cruised to victory in Australia's deadly Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race but said if it had been his first race he'd never sail again.
Authorities recovered the bodies of four sailors and gave up hope Tuesday of finding two others after a monstrous storm decimated the race with 90-mph winds and 35-foot swells.
"We were sailing right through the eye of a hurricane," Ellison, owner and skipper of the 78-foot yacht Sayonara, said at a somber post-race news conference in Hobart.
Ellison, CEO of Redwood City-based Oracle Corp., escaped heavy winds and seas that sank or crippled 59 of the 115 boats entered in the race - the worst tragedy in the contest's 54-year history.
"If this was my first race, I would not have gone back to sea," Ellison said.
With media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan on board, Sayonara crossed the line Tuesday, several hours ahead of defending champion Brindabella, officials said.
"We just want to pay tribute to families who lost sailors who were in this race, and our prayers go out to the search crews and the people who are still in the water," Ellison said when Sayonara was officially declared the winner.
Officials said Sayonara, which rode a southwesterly wind change to finish at close to 10 knots, finished about five hours outside the 1996 race record of the Morning Glory.
It was a low-key victory with few spectator boats in Hobart to greet the Sayonara after massive storms on Sunday devastated the fleet.
Sunday's gale raked the fleet of 115 competing in the 630-nautical-mile race.
The storms sent 27 Australian Navy ships scouring the seas for survivors after the first call of "Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!" came over shipboard radios Sunday.
Two Australian sailors were killed when their 40-foot boat, Business Post Naiad, capsized 60 miles off the New South Wales town of Merimbula: skipper Bruce Guy and crew member Phil Skeggs. Guy had an apparent heart attack during one of the boat's two rollovers and Skeggs drowned when he was unable to release his safety harness.
Their bodies were left on the abandoned boat by the other crewmen, but attempts were being made to recover them as soon as possible.