In the Murdoch family succession battle, Fox News and democracy hang in the balance
A 91-year-old billionaire sits atop a global media empire, while his adult children vie to control the family company in the next generation.
It sounds like the plot of the HBO series Succession, but New York Times journalist Jim Rutenberg says the real-life drama involving Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch and his children, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, rivals anything a screenwriter could dream up.
"I ... have always suspected that the Succession writers have some mole in the family, because it's just too many things they seem to know," Rutenberg says. "It's just got all the drama you want in television, but democracy hinges on its future." ...
This piece is based on a Fresh Air interview of the documentary The Murdochs, playing on CNN+, itself based on an earlier New York Times investigative piece, "Planet Fox" (2019).
Audio: https://ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2022/04/20220421_fa_01.mp3 (42 minutes).
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/21/1093753927/the-murdochs-documentary-family-succession-fox-news
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