Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch announced he would be stepping down as head of the network after a long and controversial career.
He handed his duties to his son Lachlan, who will be chairman of both Fox and News Corp. Murdoch began his career over 70 years ago when he inherited his father's Australian newspaper, the News. Over the next 70 years, he would maneuver to become one of the most powerful men in news and entertainment.
WHO IS LACHLAN MURDOCH? THE NEW HEAD OF FOX NEWS AND SON OF RUPERT MURDOCH
Beginnings in Australia
Murdoch was born in 1931 in Melbourne, Australia, to Sir Keith Murdoch, who had established himself as a respected figure in journalism over his censor-dodging coverage of the catastrophic Gallipoli campaign in WWI. Rupert Murdoch inherited his father's newspaper, the News, at age 21, following the latter's death in 1952.
The News boasted 75,000 readers when Rupert Murdoch inherited it, a major title for the time. Murdoch became its editor and publisher the following year, aiming to expand the business to previously unforeseen heights. He also took a position at News Ltd.
The following years saw him rapidly buying up local papers, expanding his control over Australian media. Murdoch then decided to go international.
UK expansion
Murdoch's first major gamble happened in 1969 when he acquired the United Kingdom News Of The World and the Sun tabloid. It was with these two that he would expand into becoming a true media mogul.
Murdoch turned the Sun, a small paper that he acquired for under $1 million, into perhaps the first modern tabloid, described by the Economist as "a stew of sexual titillation, moral outrage and political aggression."
He let the staff know that the new strategy of the Sun would revolve around "sex, sport and contests." The model paid off, becoming a fixation of British life. News of the World became the most widely read English language weekly globally.
Headways into the US
He repeated the model in an expansion into the United States in the 1970s, acquiring the New York Post in 1976 for $30 million.
The 1980s were characterized by Murdoch's fervent support for President Ronald Reagan, Conservative United Kingdom Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and his expansion into broadcasting. The anti-union behavior of the two conservatives allowed Murdoch to expand further and increase the efficiency of his media empire without falling afoul of regulations.
He bought 50% of 21st Century Fox in 1985, laying the foundation for his most lucrative business yet. In 1996, he founded Fox News with former Nixon adviser Roger Ailes. With Reagan having repealed the "fairness doctrine," requiring networks to give both sides of the story, Murdoch leaned into partisanship, attracting a massive and loyal viewer base. He had a knack for opportunistically picking winning candidates, even defecting to the Labor Party in the United Kingdom once Conservative fortunes faded. His penchant for picking the right horse would help establish him as a kingmaker in politics in the English language world.
Scandals and controversies
His first major wave of scandals hit in the 2000s when the News of the World was revealed to have hacked the phones of prominent figures to get stories. Members of the British royal family and even a murdered schoolgirl weren't spared from the practice, resulting in a government inquiry, the arrest of the royal editor, and Murdoch's ultimate decision to close the paper in 2011 to localize the damage.
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In 2020, with Fox News already working to recover from a sexual misconduct scandal around co-founder Roger Ailes, the network came under fire for airing claims of election fraud from former President Donald Trump. Dominion, the company accused by some hosts and visitors of switching votes, successfully sued Fox for defamation, resulting in a $787.5 million settlement. Just a week after the settlement, Fox News fired its most popular host, Tucker Carlson, without notice.
Murdoch is stepping down at a time when his media empire is facing perhaps its biggest challenge yet. Son Lachlan Murdoch will have to steer the ship out of its current troubles.