Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp., Fox has announced.
His son, Lachlan Murdoch, will become the chair of News Corp. and continue as executive chair and chief executive officer of Fox Corporation.
“On behalf of the FOX and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career,” Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement on Thursday.
“We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted,” the statement added.
Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born media magnate, worked in the industry for nearly seven decades, according to the statement from News Corp. The global company owns an array of media properties, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and HarperCollins Publishers.
The 92-year-old media mogul, who got into the newspaper business in the 1950s, became a major Hollywood executive in 1985 when he purchased Twentieth Century Fox from oilman Marvin Davis for $600 million. In 1986, Murdoch got into the TV business after he purchased several US television stations and created Fox Broadcasting.
Fox News launched in 1996 as a startup competitor to CNN. It eventually became the No. 1 cable news channel in America and a bastion for Republican talking points and falsehoods.
Under Murdoch’s leadership, Fox News, a crown jewel of his profitable media empire, has echoed election lies espoused by former President Donald Trump in the wake of the 2020 election. Fox Corp. ultimately paid $787 million in a defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and faces another lawsuit from Dominion competitor Smartmatic.
It’s unclear if Fox’s direction will change under Lachlan Murdoch, who has served as CEO of Fox Corp. and a News Corp and Fox executive for decades.
However, Lachlan Murdoch has privately criticized Trump, saying that he disagrees with much of the way the former President behaves, sources told CNN. Murdoch has gone so far as to tell people that he believes if Trump were to run again, it would be bad for the country.
By Agencies
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