If there are those who are born with a loaf of bread under their arms, Lachlan Murdoch came into this world 52 years ago with a bakery specializing in golden cupcakes.
Life is a tombola. Lachlan was a winner from his birth, although he later spent a period of voluntary exile, in search of his own business soul, which allowed him to star in the return of the prodigal son, 21st century version.
Lachlan Murdoch has placed himself at the top of one of the largest media empires in the world as the son chosen by Rupert Murdoch, 92, to succeed him as absolute head of Fox Corporation and News Corporation, which have Fox, Fox News and the newspapers in the US The Wall Street Journal and the tabloid The New York Post.
They say that his great merit is being the most similar to his father in terms of existential philosophy. Rupert, who built his business network with tentacles in his native Australia and in the United Kingdom, where he controls a dense media network, started with a local newspaper in his home country.
Its expansion transcended beyond this business and confirmed the truth that the press is the fourth estate. Beginning with the founding of the Fox News cable news network in 1995, with the aim of competing with the thriving CNN, Murdoch Sr. has managed to reconfigure the political landscape of American conservatism and the entire country. No one doubts – and many curse him – that he, along with his close collaborator Roger Ailes, are responsible for the emergence and “normalization” of Donald Trump and the extreme right.
Lachlan, the chosen one, will reach the top position with a leadership style and political affinities clearly more aligned with his father than his brother James and his sisters Prudence and Elisabeth.
In 2017, his father named Lachlan and James co-presidents of 21st Century Fox studios. Once this company was sold to Disney in 2019, James stepped away from the family business. In a letter he explained his disagreement “with certain editorial content.” While it is not clear what support he will have from his sisters, the disagreements with James, who is very critical of Fox News’ marked drift to the extreme right, are known. He even donated thousands of dollars to progressive causes and Joe Biden’s campaign, unhappy with the climate change denialist line in his house.
Lachlan, on the other hand, broadly assumes the postulates of the radical conservatives of the star channel. He has always been loyal to his father’s principles and is a faithful fighter when it comes to defending his father figure. And their relationship was not always one of complicity.
The heir is one of three children Murdoch had with journalist Anna Maria dePeyster, his second wife (he has three more descendants from two other wives). Lachlan was born in London (1971) and lived in New York since he was a child. He graduated from Princeton in Philosophy. Like his father, he dabbled in family diaries in Australia. Back in the US, at age 34 he was the third most powerful executive at News Corp., with control over several television channels. But in 2005 he was surprised by his resignation and return to the other country, with his wife Sarah and his son (later they had two more) to start his business.
His escape was due to a confrontation with Ailes, Rupert’s squire and head of Fox News. Lachlan felt that his father was not by his side. But things went poorly for him and he returned to the fold in 2014, pressured by his father. He already sensed what has happened now. Rupert has named himself president emeritus and passes command to the chosen one, after the company paid 800 million not to go to trial for Trump’s conspiratorial lies.
Lachlan is in the air. Understand, since 2021 he has resided in Sydney and continually travels the 16,000 kilometers that separate him from the New York barracks.
