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The Media

Rupert Murdoch To Step Down as Chair of Fox and News Corp After Seven-Decade Career (wsj.com) 167

Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chair of Fox and News Corp, after building a media empire over seven decades that revolutionized news and entertainment and made him one of the world's most influential and controversial tycoons. WSJ: Murdoch, 92 years old, will exit his roles atop each company as of November, when they hold annual meetings, the companies said. He will be appointed chairman emeritus of each company. His eldest son, Lachlan Murdoch, who has served as co-chair of News Corp, will become sole chair of that company and will continue as Fox Corp executive chair and CEO. "For my entire professional life, I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change. But the time is right for me to take on different roles," Rupert Murdoch wrote in a memo to staff.

His decision to step back solidifies Lachlan Murdoch as his successor. He called Lachlan a "passionate, principled leader" who can take the companies into the future. Murdoch is one of a handful of media barons, along with the likes of John Malone, Ted Turner and Sumner Redstone, who shaped the modern era of media. He has wielded influence in political and financial capitals, earning credit from his boosters and blame from his critics. Murdoch has remained active in his later years, pursuing big deals to reshape his companies. Murdoch is stepping back at an important moment for both wings of his media empire, as they confront fundamental challenges in the media landscape. Fox, a relatively small player in an entertainment industry now dominated by titans, is wrestling with the profound implications of cable cord-cutting and the growth of streaming. News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, Times of London and other publications, is trying to find the right formula for digital growth amid a fierce battle for subscribers and online-ad dollars.

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Rupert Murdoch To Step Down as Chair of Fox and News Corp After Seven-Decade Career

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  • Hard to imagine... (Score:5, Informative)

    by BloomFilter ( 1295691 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @08:42AM (#63865452)
    ... any media outlet doing more damage to the world.
    • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @08:43AM (#63865454)

      And it sure ain't for a lack of trying.

    • BloomFilter [slashdot.org]: “... any media outlet doing more damage to the world.

      Disney ..
    • ... any media outlet doing more damage to the liberal world.

      Fixed it for you. Ruins the liberals world to tell the truth. That's why they spend so much energy trying to silence dissenters.

  • Shout-out to all fellow fans of the series

    I hope all his 6 kids with 3 wives are AOK with the eldest son taking over...

  • Yeah, nice work Rupert

  • The Simpsons will end when he dies wait disney owns that

  • Back to the soil of his native land in his coffin where he will sleep for 1000 years.
  • Warren Buffett is 93 and still CEO. Sounds like Biden still has a few more years.
  • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @09:00AM (#63865520)
    Is this irony, or sarcasm?

    Maybe both. The company that just lost three quarters of a billion dollars to Dominion for promoting things they knew were outright lies, and is now facing an investor revolt for their actions relating to their lack of principles. That company, Lachlan?

    Can't make this shit up - oh...wait... they did.

    • by SirSlud ( 67381 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @09:04AM (#63865530) Homepage

      "Can make this shit up" is the corporate motto

    • Now Lachlan has to deal with the $2.7 billion Smartmatic lawsuit. Maybe they can settle that one for half too.

      • Now Lachlan has to deal with the $2.7 billion Smartmatic lawsuit. Maybe they can settle that one for half too.

        Can you imagine being a shareholder? I don't have any FOX stock, but if I did I'd sell it ASAP. It's at 29.24 at the moment.

        They are going to be unstable for a while at best.

    • Is this irony, or sarcasm?

      Given his age, dementia is more likely.

      • Is this irony, or sarcasm?

        Given his age, dementia is more likely.

        Could be. Like some of their commentators. They seem to have trouble understanding that while they have free speech rights, everyone else does, and we can react to them too.

        • What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that they may have the right to speak, but I'm under no obligation to listen to their bullshit.

          • What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that they may have the right to speak, but I'm under no obligation to listen to their bullshit.

            Though it is fun to ridicule it on occasion. Those so inclined to believe that free speech os a one way street can get pretty big rageboners when you curbstomp them.

    • And they still have more lawsuits to battle, and I suspect the losses from the 2020 "stolen election" will be well in excess of $1 billion before it's done. While Murdoch and his family hold the largest bloc of voting shares in Newscorp and Fox News, there are other shareholders as well, so I imagine there are so pretty grumpy people out there. There's little doubt that the firing of Anderson Cooper wasn't merely a sort of quid quo pro with Dominion, but likely to ease restive shareholders. The theory being

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 )

        And they still have more lawsuits to battle, and I suspect the losses from the 2020 "stolen election" will be well in excess of $1 billion before it's done. While Murdoch and his family hold the largest bloc of voting shares in Newscorp and Fox News, there are other shareholders as well, so I imagine there are so pretty grumpy people out there. There's little doubt that the firing of Anderson Cooper wasn't merely a sort of quid quo pro with Dominion, but likely to ease restive shareholders. The theory being thrown out there now is that some of the other Murdoch kids are no fans of Lachlan, and there may be more intrigue to come. Lachlan is the natural heir of Rupert, if everyone wants News Corp to keep doing what it's doing now, but the other shareholders, and indeed some of the other Murdochs may have other ideas.

        There's a whole new war being fought here, and I doubt very much that News Corp and Fox News are going to come out of this intact.

        Did you mean Tucker Carlson? Anyhow, it couldn't happen to a nicer company. They are merely using the Joseph Goebbels playbook:

        If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself.

        Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.

        But they forget what he also noted - talk about irony

        There will come a day, when all the lies will collapse under their own weight, and truth will again triump

    • Is this irony, or sarcasm?

      It's neither. He's passionate and principled. His principles just don't align with yours and mine.

      • Is this irony, or sarcasm?

        It's neither. He's passionate and principled. His principles just don't align with yours and mine.

        Inasmuch as principled can be a lack of principles I can suppose. 8^)

    • Lachlan is certainly not as worthless as djt jr.
      • Lachlan is certainly not as worthless as djt jr.

        Yah, Junior has the market cornered on worthlessness.

  • nope (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    hard to be a leader when you have zero experience in leadership or what "work" is, its not like they rose through the company over decades based on hard work and determination, nepotism got them there.

    • What do you mean no experience? His brilliant leadership at One.Tel ... well, lost 5 billion dollars, but you know, that's what passionate leaders do right? Now he has experience losing lots of money. I'm sure if he puts his mind to it he can lose even more!

  • Good (Score:2, Informative)

    by TheDarkener ( 198348 )

    Good riddance, twat. Thanks for helping fuck up the world way more than it already was.

  • For whatever else he's done I'll always look back with fondness at the time he dumped his fiancee and then cancelled her favourite TV show [wikipedia.org].

  • It's hard to imagine anyone that could be said to have "shaped the modern era of media" being proud of what they have done.

  • ...is his, when the trap door opens on the gallows he's on, for treason, incitement to commit murder, and more.

  • Purge it with fire (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Bahbus ( 1180627 )

    The entire Murdoch gene pool, any companies they've run, and any people supporting the Murdochs, should be purged from the face of the Earth. They have provided no value to anything in society.

    • The entire Murdoch gene pool, any companies they've run, and any people supporting the Murdochs, should be purged from the face of the Earth. They have provided no value to anything in society.

      All of them? Children, too? Are you asking to be allowed to murder them all with your own hands?

      Do people actually think about what they post? I hope not. Otherwise... you need to be locked up.

      I'm no fan of Murdoch, or Fox, or anything associated with him, but "purged from the face of the Earth"? Really?

      • by Bahbus ( 1180627 )

        Yes. In my post above with the statement of what should happen, I clearly asked to be allowed to do it myself.

        But yes, purged. Trump, Putin, and their gene pools, too. I don't care how extreme it is. I don't care how callous it sounds. I don't care about the what ifs. If it were at all possible to remove them from the timeline so that they never existed, that would be even better.

  • The world will be a slightly less bad place once that sorry excuse for a human being is gone.
  • by Required Snark ( 1702878 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @08:09PM (#63867293)
    Why is anyone buying this steaming pile of bullshit? Could any thinking person believe he is actually giving up real control? If you believe that then you are stupid enough to believe the toxic waste stream that spews out of Fox News and his other worldwide propaganda mills.

    It's a publicity stunt. The sole purpose is to get his ass out of the line of fire during the current slew of lawsuits. Nothing will change at any company he controls in any way. [politico.com]

    He's a degenerate liar and this is just one more example. The media empire he founded reflects who he really is and what he really believes. He's a diehard fascist and if this was the 1930's he'd be the mouthpiece for Mussolini, Franco and Hitler. That's why Fox pumped up Trump, even if Murdoch personally despised him. He figured out how to gain immense personal power and make vast profit by promoting international fascism, and he won't give that up until his last dying breath.

  • What a bunch of bullshit. Means nothing to any sane person.

You can tell how far we have to go, when FORTRAN is the language of supercomputers. -- Steven Feiner

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