Newly anointed chairman of News Corporation and Fox Corporation Lachlan Murdoch, having taken over from his father Rupert Murdoch, is facing a perilous future as the media empire, particularly the Fox News division, contends with a flood of lawsuits including a multi-billion lawsuit filed by Smartmatic over election fraud claims.
Having weathered a similar defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems that resulted in a stunning $787 million settlement, the heir to the News Corporation throne will attempt to oversee the company through the stormy waters that also include claims made by multiple pensions funds linked to the admission made by Fox in the Dominion lawsuit as well as former employees who have filed multi-million dollar lawsuits against the company.
According to a report from the Guardian's Edward Helmore, "deriving from the Dominion settlement are claims by the $95.4bn state of Oregon and five New York City pension funds that Fox News breached its fiduciary duty when it broadcast false claims about the 2020 election, potentially exposing shareholders to liability. Oregon holds just over $5m in Fox Corp stock; New York has $27m."
According to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, Fox opened itself up to the defamation lawsuits and “took a massive risk in pursuing profits by perpetuating and peddling known falsehoods”.
Added to that are lawsuits filed by Jan. 6 participant Ray Epps who claims he was smeared by former Fox host Tucker Carlson as a government informant, former Fox News reporter and producer Jason Donner who claims he was fired for his refusal "to report false information surrounding both the election and J-6" and "a claim by Nina Jankowicz that she was subjected to a 'malicious campaign of destruction' orchestrated by Fox after she was appointed to Joe Biden’s Disinformation Governance Board widely derisively dubbed the 'Ministry of Truth'."
Add to that, the Guardian's Helmore suggested that Lachlan Murdoch will also have to contend with his father looking over his shoulder and judging his every move.
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“First Murdoch made the announcement, now there’s been this official handover, but the fact remains that Lachlan Murdoch is going to be trying to run the company but Rupert has not gone and has specifically said he plans to show up at the office," explained Syracuse University professor Bob Thompson. “What did King Lear’s daughters have to worry about? King Lear didn’t want to leave the kingdom, and that didn’t turn out well at all."
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