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Rupert Murdoch and three of his heirs are in engaged a secret legal battle over the future of his expansive conservative media empire.
The battle was set off late last year when Murdoch filed to change the terms of an irrevocable family trust, according to sealed court documents obtained by the New York Times.
The family’s current trust gives Murdoch’s four eldest children — Lachlan, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence — equal voting rights over the family’s media conglomerates after his death. The companies include Fox, the parent company of Fox News and the broadcast network Fox, and News Corp, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, The New York Post and several newspapers and television stations in Australia and Britain.
Although the trust was supposed to inviolable, it included a provision that allowed amendments if they were done in good faith to benefit all of its members.
The New York Times reports that according to court documents, Murdoch is taking advantage of this provision to try to give his son Lachlan majority voting rights in order to maintain the companies’ conservative editorial leanings.
Murdoch is arguing that a “lack of consensus” among his heirs “would impact the strategic direction at both companies including a potential reorientation of editorial policy and content.”
Last month, a probate court in Reno, Nevada decided Murdoch could change the trust if he could prove in a trial that he is acting in good faith. The trial is expected to start this September.
Murdoch’s other three children, who are estranged from him, were surprised by the move and have hired lawyers to prevent the change.
Murdoch retired from both companies last year. Lachlan is now the current chairman of News Corp and the executive chairman and CEO of Fox.