‘Lachlan’s in the mire’: Fox News case spells trouble for Murdoch heir
O n 1 November 2018 Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of the media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, made a rare public appearance at a New York Times DealBook conference. Dressed in a sharp blue suit and open-necked white shirt, he looked relaxed and on top of the world.
He had just been named chief executive and chairman of Fox’s TV businesses, while his brother James, a possible rival for the top job, was heading for the company exit. Lachlan was finally emerging as his father’s sole and undisputed heir.
Not that everything was plain sailing at the Fox ship. A few days before Lachlan took the stage, a gunman opened fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, killing 11 Jewish worshippers.
Before the attack the alleged shooter had repeated on social media a number of Fox News talking points about Central American migrants “invading” America. He had also posted a Fox News report that showed a truck stamped with the Star of David carrying asylum seekers to the US border.
On stage, DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, asked Murdoch what he thought about the many false flags and conspiracy theories that Fox News routinely trafficked. “When you see that stuff, are you proud?”
Murdoch, appearing unruffled, tried to characterize the material as opinion broadcast separately from the network’s news reporting. But he did say this: “All news organisations, when they get something wrong they have an absolute responsibility to correct it and to apologise for it.”
Five years on from that rare expression of public accountability, Murdoch, 51, might wish he had taken his own advice. He now finds himself deeply embroiled in the latest scandal to engulf his father’s media empire, one that threatens to destabilise the Fox News vessel and with it the
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