NEWS
Rupert Murdoch Stepping Down As Chairman of News Corp and Fox Corp
Courtesy of nitecastmedia/Instagram
Rupert Murdoch is stepping down as chairman of the board of both Fox Corp. and News Corp., the 92-year-old mogul revealed in a letter to employees.
The change will be official in November, when Murdoch’s son, Lachlan Murdoch, takes over as chairman of News Corp. He will remain in his position as executive chair and CEO of Fox Corp. The elder Murdoch will become chairman emeritus at both companies.
“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, knowing that we have truly talented teams and a passionate, principled leader in Lachlan who will become sole Chairman of both companies,” Murdoch wrote in his note to employees.
The move comes soon after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over the TV network’s false claims that the company’s voting machines fraudulently tipped the results of the 2020 presidential election toward President Joe Biden, and away from Donald Trump.
“Our companies are in robust health, as am I,” Murdoch continued in his letter. “Our opportunities far exceed our commercial challenges. We have every reason to be optimistic about the coming years – I certainly am, and plan to be here to participate in them. But the battle for the freedom of speech and, ultimately, the freedom of thought, has never been more intense.”
He said that in his new role he will still “be involved every day in the contest of ideas,” and that Lachlan is “absolutely committed” to freedom.
“Self-serving bureaucracies are seeking to silence those who would question their provenance and purpose. Elites have open contempt for those who are not members of their rarefied class. Most of the media is in cahoots with those elites, peddling political narratives rather than pursuing the truth,” Murdoch wrote.
He assured employees he would continue reading the companies’ newspapers, which include The Wall Street Journal, and watching their news broadcasts “with a critical eye,” and will continue to pop up in their offices “late on a Friday afternoon.”
TMX contributed to this article.
