WEBVTT - Rupert Murdoch's successor: Who is he?

0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:04.120
<v Speaker 1>Already and this is the daily This is the Daily.

0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:15.960
<v Speaker 1>Ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning and welcome

0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.960
<v Speaker 1>to the Daily Ours. It's Wednesday, the eighteenth of September.

0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.520
<v Speaker 1>I'm Harry, I'm Zara. You may have never heard of

0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.320
<v Speaker 1>Lochlan Murdoch. He's the son of Rupert Murdoch, an Australian

0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.240
<v Speaker 1>born media mogul who is arguably one of the most

0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.760
<v Speaker 1>powerful men in the world. Rupert wants Lachland to be

0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.360
<v Speaker 1>the successor in control of his vast global media empire

0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:38.960
<v Speaker 1>and is currently fighting to make that happen in a

0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.040
<v Speaker 1>US court. In today's deep Dive, will take a look

0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.839
<v Speaker 1>at the real life succession drama playing out in America

0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.000
<v Speaker 1>and how much do we really know about Lachlan Murdoch,

0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.200
<v Speaker 1>the man in line to inherit the biggest media empire

0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.440
<v Speaker 1>in the world. The First Sarah. What's making headlines.

0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:02.120
<v Speaker 2>Australia has negotiated a new free trade agreement with the

0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:06.800
<v Speaker 2>United Arab Emirates. Trade Minister Don Farrell announced the agreement yesterday,

0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.600
<v Speaker 2>which he said will save money by reducing tariffs taxes

0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:14.720
<v Speaker 2>applied by the UAE on Australian goods. It imports like meat, dairy,

0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.280
<v Speaker 2>seafood and steel. Farrell said the deal will mean quote

0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.520
<v Speaker 2>more higher paying jobs, more opportunities for our businesses, and

0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.800
<v Speaker 2>cheaper bills for Australian households. The Australian Council of Trade

0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:29.360
<v Speaker 2>Unions had previously flagged concerns over the treatment of workers

0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.520
<v Speaker 2>in the UAE, saying it quote strongly believes the government

0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:35.720
<v Speaker 2>should not give preferential market access to countries with poor

0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:37.039
<v Speaker 2>labor rights practices.

0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.800
<v Speaker 1>US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield, has criticized

0:01:43.800 --> 0:01:48.000
<v Speaker 1>the recent killing of a Turkish American activist, aishanaw Skiegi

0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:52.600
<v Speaker 1>in the West Bank. Greenfield said, quote this horrific tragedy

0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.920
<v Speaker 1>should never have happened. She demanded access to Israel's investigation

0:01:57.000 --> 0:02:00.400
<v Speaker 1>into the matter, adding quote her death, like that of

0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:04.240
<v Speaker 1>so many others over the past year, was tragic and unnecessary.

0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.360
<v Speaker 1>The Israeli Defense Forces expressed deep regret and said its

0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:12.960
<v Speaker 1>preliminary investigation had found it was quote highly likely that

0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:17.160
<v Speaker 1>she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDA fire.

0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:23.000
<v Speaker 2>US Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles has filed an appeal of

0:02:23.040 --> 0:02:26.080
<v Speaker 2>the decision by the Court of arbitration for sport or

0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:29.359
<v Speaker 2>CIS to strip her of the bronze medal she won

0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.600
<v Speaker 2>at this year's Olympics. At one of Charles's events at

0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.600
<v Speaker 2>the Paris Olympics this year, her coach requested her score

0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.919
<v Speaker 2>be reevaluated, leading to her winning the bronze over two

0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.680
<v Speaker 2>athletes from Romania. Those athletes then in turn lodged an

0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.799
<v Speaker 2>appeal with CIS, arguing Charles's coach asked for a reevaluation

0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:50.440
<v Speaker 2>outside of the allowed time. The CIS then ruled that

0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.240
<v Speaker 2>Charles had to give back her medal. In a statement,

0:02:53.320 --> 0:02:56.840
<v Speaker 2>Charles's lawyers alleged to the CIS didn't accept video evidence

0:02:56.840 --> 0:03:00.239
<v Speaker 2>from her showing the reevaluation requests was filed on time,

0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.240
<v Speaker 2>and that a member of the panel that stripped her

0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:05.160
<v Speaker 2>of her medal was a lawyer for Romanian gymnasts. The

0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:07.839
<v Speaker 2>appeal has been filed in the Supreme Court of Switzerland,

0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.680
<v Speaker 2>where COAS is based.

0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.880
<v Speaker 1>And Today's Good News. For the first time ever, five

0:03:14.960 --> 0:03:18.400
<v Speaker 1>female authors have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The

0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.560
<v Speaker 1>prize is awarded to an English language novel voted the

0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:24.960
<v Speaker 1>best of the year by an expert panel. To be eligible,

0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:27.760
<v Speaker 1>authors can be from any country, but their books must

0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.000
<v Speaker 1>have been published in the UK and Ireland. This year's

0:03:31.080 --> 0:03:34.920
<v Speaker 1>shortlist features six authors, five of whom are women, the

0:03:34.960 --> 0:03:38.680
<v Speaker 1>most ever nominated in one year. They include Australian author

0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:42.160
<v Speaker 1>Charlotte Wood, who wrote the novel's Stoneyard devotional What is

0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.280
<v Speaker 1>the first Australian to make the shortlist since twenty fourteen.

0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:48.560
<v Speaker 1>The last women to win the Booker were Bernardine Everisto

0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:52.120
<v Speaker 1>and Margaret Atwood, who jointly won in twenty nineteen for

0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:56.800
<v Speaker 1>their books Girl Woman, Other and The Testaments respectively. Will

0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:58.840
<v Speaker 1>be back with the Deep Dive after this.

0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:05.560
<v Speaker 2>Quick break, now, Harry. If we could pay the incredible

0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.800
<v Speaker 2>royalties that were required to play the Succession theme song,

0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.960
<v Speaker 2>I would do it. Put my own money.

0:04:12.080 --> 0:04:16.560
<v Speaker 1>I'm just imagining the tune. It's happening up here, maybe.

0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.440
<v Speaker 2>Not out here, but I'm so sorry for anyone that

0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.240
<v Speaker 2>had to listen to that this morning. Anyway. All that

0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.679
<v Speaker 2>to say that we are talking about a real life

0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.800
<v Speaker 2>succession scenario playing out and you don't have to have

0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:31.800
<v Speaker 2>seen the television show to understand this story. But if

0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.880
<v Speaker 2>people haven't been following or haven't been reading about the

0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.640
<v Speaker 2>Murdochs and you know, we are in media, we do

0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.520
<v Speaker 2>have a bias towards caring about these sorts of stories.

0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:45.440
<v Speaker 2>How would you introduce someone like Rupert Murdoch at a party,

0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:46.520
<v Speaker 2>for example.

0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:48.960
<v Speaker 1>Well, first of all, I'd say, this is my mate Rupert.

0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:52.520
<v Speaker 1>He's ninety three years old, he was born in Australia

0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:56.800
<v Speaker 1>and he is the most influential media mogul in the world.

0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.960
<v Speaker 1>He owns more than one hundred news titles, including dozens

0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:04.479
<v Speaker 1>based in Australia, in the UK and in the US.

0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.520
<v Speaker 1>And it's very likely you've watched some of them, So

0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.800
<v Speaker 1>think Fox News or Sky News here in Australia, or

0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.360
<v Speaker 1>you've seen some of his news outlets so the Daily Telegraphed,

0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:17.919
<v Speaker 1>The Australian or News dot com dot Au online, So

0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.240
<v Speaker 1>it's very likely that you've come across one of his

0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:22.080
<v Speaker 1>news platforms before. Yeah.

0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.120
<v Speaker 2>I mean, when we talk about the Australian media market,

0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.480
<v Speaker 2>for example, and you know us trying to build the

0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:32.039
<v Speaker 2>Daily os so often conversations around media concentration emerged because

0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:35.840
<v Speaker 2>Rupert Murdoch and News Court now owns so much of

0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.320
<v Speaker 2>the Australian media market. Almost every newspaper, every radio station,

0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.039
<v Speaker 2>every TV station, at some point, whether or not it

0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.760
<v Speaker 2>is now has been touched by Rupert Murdoch. Why are

0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.240
<v Speaker 2>we speaking about him today, though? Why are we talking

0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:50.080
<v Speaker 2>about the Murdocks.

0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:54.320
<v Speaker 1>So, as we've discussed, Rupert owns a massive media empire

0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:58.479
<v Speaker 1>and Forbes estimates he's worth about twenty billion dollars US,

0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:02.720
<v Speaker 1>which is about the thirty billion in Australian dollars. And

0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:05.880
<v Speaker 1>as we know, he's also not a young man anymore,

0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:08.680
<v Speaker 1>so a lot of attention has turned to what will

0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.279
<v Speaker 1>happen once he passes. And so that's where we go

0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:16.600
<v Speaker 1>back to nineteen ninety nine where Rupert divorced his second wife,

0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:20.799
<v Speaker 1>Anna Murdoch, who he had three children with, Elizabeth, Laughlin

0:06:20.960 --> 0:06:24.920
<v Speaker 1>and James. And by that point Rupert had one other child, Prudence,

0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:28.039
<v Speaker 1>who he had from his first marriage, and he set

0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.560
<v Speaker 1>up what's known as an irrevocable trust to split ownership

0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:34.680
<v Speaker 1>of his businesses, shares and his money between his four

0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.360
<v Speaker 1>children when he divorced annas So that's back in the nineties,

0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.840
<v Speaker 1>and now the family's in court debating this trust.

0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.920
<v Speaker 2>Okay, And for anyone unfamiliar, which I am, what is

0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:47.400
<v Speaker 2>an irrevocable trust?

0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.400
<v Speaker 1>It's basically a legal document setting out how Rupert Murdock's

0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.400
<v Speaker 1>going to divide up his assets after he dies. Okay,

0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.200
<v Speaker 1>irrevocable means it can't be changed, but it has changed before.

0:06:58.560 --> 0:07:02.080
<v Speaker 1>That's with the exception when Rupert had two other children,

0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:05.640
<v Speaker 1>Chloe and Grace, they were added to this trust, but

0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.880
<v Speaker 1>they aren't involved in this pointy aspect of the trust

0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.120
<v Speaker 1>that is being debated in courts. So that's how we

0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.880
<v Speaker 1>end up in Nevada, the great US state next to California,

0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.880
<v Speaker 1>because Rupert is trying to change the trust again. It

0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:24.800
<v Speaker 1>specifies that Prudence, Elizabeth, Lachlan, and James, his first four children,

0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:28.920
<v Speaker 1>each have equal say over the future of Rupert's vast

0:07:29.120 --> 0:07:30.040
<v Speaker 1>business empire.

0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.280
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so let me just stop you there, just to

0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.800
<v Speaker 2>recap where we're at. So Rupert Murdoch, I mean, he's

0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.800
<v Speaker 2>been married many times, but at this point had been

0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.960
<v Speaker 2>married twice, had four children from two wives, and so

0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.000
<v Speaker 2>in nineteen ninety nine, after he divorces Anna, his second wife,

0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:48.240
<v Speaker 2>he sets up this trust. And the premise of the

0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.080
<v Speaker 2>trust is that all of his great fortunes will be

0:07:51.080 --> 0:07:53.360
<v Speaker 2>passed down to all of his children and that it

0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:55.480
<v Speaker 2>can't be changed. Is that right?

0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:56.280
<v Speaker 3>That's right.

0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:58.400
<v Speaker 1>Ok, all right, you're coming along the journey with me,

0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:02.040
<v Speaker 1>and it is a very complicated way of handing down

0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:06.000
<v Speaker 1>your assets and fortunes. But we're talking about the Murdocks.

0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:07.840
<v Speaker 2>Here, Yeah, very unusual situation.

0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:11.880
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, And so Rupert now wants to change this trust,

0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.240
<v Speaker 1>the unchangeable trust, the unchangeable trust. He's going to try

0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:18.240
<v Speaker 1>and change it because he's Rupert Murdoch. So here's what

0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:20.600
<v Speaker 1>he wants to do. Rupert wants to change the trust

0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.040
<v Speaker 1>so that Lachlan is in control of his business fortunes

0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:25.960
<v Speaker 1>after he dies.

0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:28.840
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So that's changing it from it being all four

0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:30.480
<v Speaker 2>of them to just being Lachlan.

0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:34.600
<v Speaker 1>That's right. Why, Well, Lachlan is the only one of

0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.920
<v Speaker 1>those four children who's still working for Rupert Murdoch for

0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:41.760
<v Speaker 1>one of his businesses. I should say. He's at a

0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.200
<v Speaker 1>senior position at Fox Corp and News Corp. And there

0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:47.760
<v Speaker 1>are some other theories as to why. One of them

0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.400
<v Speaker 1>is that he doesn't want internal conflicts within the family

0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.960
<v Speaker 1>affecting the course of the business of his businesses once

0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.760
<v Speaker 1>he dies. So he doesn't want any family divisions to

0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:03.080
<v Speaker 1>hurt the fourtunes of Fox Corps of News Corp. But

0:09:03.120 --> 0:09:06.320
<v Speaker 1>it's also widely reported that Lachlan and Rupert are a

0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:10.520
<v Speaker 1>bit more ideologically aligned politically aligned these days as well.

0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:15.440
<v Speaker 1>Lachlan attended his dad's last wedding and the other kids didn't,

0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.280
<v Speaker 1>So it's a bit of rumor mill, a bit of

0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.920
<v Speaker 1>speculation that that is some of the reasons being put

0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.480
<v Speaker 1>forward why this trust might be changing. And so the

0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:28.800
<v Speaker 1>other three kids aren't too happy about it. That sense,

0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.520
<v Speaker 1>When you've got your fingertips potentially on a vast media empire,

0:09:33.600 --> 0:09:35.680
<v Speaker 1>I think you wouldn't want it to slip away from you.

0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.720
<v Speaker 1>And so that's why they're currently in court. They're trying

0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:41.920
<v Speaker 1>to guarantee that they'll still have some control over the

0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:46.319
<v Speaker 1>businesses once Rupert dies. And I think it's just important

0:09:46.320 --> 0:09:49.200
<v Speaker 1>to note here that we wouldn't even really know about

0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.800
<v Speaker 1>what's going on in this Nevada court if it wasn't

0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:57.120
<v Speaker 1>for the enterprising journalists at the New York Times their team,

0:09:57.679 --> 0:09:59.600
<v Speaker 1>because they were the ones that managed to get their

0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:04.000
<v Speaker 1>hands on this sealed court document. Because otherwise it's all

0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:07.200
<v Speaker 1>happening behind closed doors. We don't really know what's happening

0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:08.239
<v Speaker 1>in that courtroom.

0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.680
<v Speaker 2>Okay, So Rupert Murdoch is really fighting for Lachlan to

0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:16.160
<v Speaker 2>be his successor. And this isn't just a normal family story,

0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:17.960
<v Speaker 2>and you know, you and I were speaking about this

0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:22.280
<v Speaker 2>off Mike. This is about the future of not just

0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.120
<v Speaker 2>Australian media, like the world's media, and the way we

0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.240
<v Speaker 2>get our information and who wins elections and who loses elections,

0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:32.040
<v Speaker 2>and to understand the gravity of it, I really feel

0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.440
<v Speaker 2>like the world needs to understand a bit more about

0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:38.080
<v Speaker 2>Lochlan Murdock because he is this notoriously quite private figure,

0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:38.520
<v Speaker 2>isn't he.

0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.240
<v Speaker 1>We don't actually know a huge amount about him. We

0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:46.080
<v Speaker 1>rely on sources that are close to him, yeah, acquaintances

0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:49.480
<v Speaker 1>that are talking out and friends, but we don't hear

0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:51.640
<v Speaker 1>much from Lochlan Murdock himself.

0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:53.960
<v Speaker 2>I didn't even know that he had an American accent.

0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:56.079
<v Speaker 2>I don't read about him. Yeah, I don't think I've

0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.200
<v Speaker 2>read about him, and I had never listened to an

0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:01.600
<v Speaker 2>interview with him. I've never met him. And so when

0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.360
<v Speaker 2>I was watching the ABC's Australian story, I was so

0:11:04.480 --> 0:11:06.560
<v Speaker 2>shocked by how deep his American accent is, and it

0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.040
<v Speaker 2>just made me realize how little I actually do know

0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:09.600
<v Speaker 2>about him.

0:11:09.840 --> 0:11:12.400
<v Speaker 1>And some of those interviews were from when he was

0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.280
<v Speaker 1>a bit younger as well, and I think as he's

0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.640
<v Speaker 1>gotten older, he's been a bit more reluctant to do interviews.

0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:20.920
<v Speaker 1>I think a lot of the family don't tend to

0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:25.280
<v Speaker 1>do those sit down interviews very often. So I think

0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:28.280
<v Speaker 1>to understand who Lochlan Murdock is got to go back

0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.199
<v Speaker 1>to his roots. So he was born in London. He's

0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.560
<v Speaker 1>the eldest boy in the family. He lived in Australia

0:11:34.679 --> 0:11:38.439
<v Speaker 1>in his twenties and he was working quiet senior posts

0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:42.720
<v Speaker 1>across his dad's businesses and that's where he met his wife, Sarah,

0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:46.120
<v Speaker 1>who we might know from Australia's Next Top Model. Correct,

0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:52.080
<v Speaker 1>so deep in my brain that finale. So Lachlan didn't

0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.600
<v Speaker 1>have a very smooth run in his early years, and

0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:58.280
<v Speaker 1>it was partly because of rugby league in Australia. So

0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:02.800
<v Speaker 1>the big rival media family in Australia, the Packers, they

0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:07.520
<v Speaker 1>had the TV rights to broadcast rugby league, and how

0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:10.880
<v Speaker 1>did Rupert and Lachlan want to overcome that because they

0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:14.559
<v Speaker 1>also wanted the rights. They set up their own competition.

0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.959
<v Speaker 1>So there were two competitions that occurred in nineteen ninety six,

0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:23.000
<v Speaker 1>nineteen ninety seven, and it only really lasted a short

0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:25.760
<v Speaker 1>amount of time. It was really expensive and there was

0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:30.800
<v Speaker 1>a really bitter fallout from it. Lachlan was also involved

0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:35.040
<v Speaker 1>in the great rise and collapse of a telecommunications company

0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:38.319
<v Speaker 1>called OneTel, which fell apart in two thousand and one,

0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:40.280
<v Speaker 1>but it was a big thing in the late nineties

0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:45.040
<v Speaker 1>and that was put down to poor corporate management. But

0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:49.520
<v Speaker 1>he is credited with investing in real estate Australia in

0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.000
<v Speaker 1>the early two thousand so this is when the Internet

0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.679
<v Speaker 1>was first coming to life and developing into what we

0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:58.480
<v Speaker 1>know the Internet to be today. This was like a

0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.360
<v Speaker 1>digital real estate advertising company. It was quite a novel

0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:05.319
<v Speaker 1>idea at the time, but it's absolutely skyrocketed in value since,

0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.960
<v Speaker 1>so the investment's very much paid off for Lachlan overtime.

0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.240
<v Speaker 1>Lachlan actually left the family business in two thousand and

0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:14.679
<v Speaker 1>five and he went off on his own and he

0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.280
<v Speaker 1>set up an investment firm and lived in Sydney for

0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:19.439
<v Speaker 1>quite some years.

0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.079
<v Speaker 2>So the early part of Lochlan Murdoch's career had many

0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:27.079
<v Speaker 2>kind of inflection points. Interestingly, it overlapped quite a bit

0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.960
<v Speaker 2>with James Packer, who, as you said, is the son

0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:33.640
<v Speaker 2>of another media mogul, But it really was defined by

0:13:34.160 --> 0:13:37.800
<v Speaker 2>Lachlan Murdock emerging from his father's shadow and trying to

0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:42.240
<v Speaker 2>get out there and propel the business forward. You said

0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.800
<v Speaker 2>he left the company in two thousand and five. What

0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:45.959
<v Speaker 2>brought him back to.

0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:49.439
<v Speaker 1>It, Well, he came back in twenty fourteen, I think,

0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:51.320
<v Speaker 1>at a time where the Murdocks were in a bit

0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.240
<v Speaker 1>of strife. So his brother James was overseeing the UK

0:13:55.760 --> 0:14:01.199
<v Speaker 1>arm of the Murdoch media business was called News International

0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:05.400
<v Speaker 1>at the time, it's now News UK. And that's when

0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.680
<v Speaker 1>the whole News of the World scandal broke out. For

0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:12.160
<v Speaker 1>anyone who's unfamiliar with that, that's when the News of

0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:15.520
<v Speaker 1>the World, an old tabloid newspaper, was found to be

0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:20.400
<v Speaker 1>hacking the phones of certain celebrities and then also some

0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:24.320
<v Speaker 1>victims of crime. So there was a really really horrific

0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:28.440
<v Speaker 1>case involving a girl who had disappeared and who later

0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:32.440
<v Speaker 1>was found had been murdered. The journalists had managed to

0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:36.040
<v Speaker 1>hack hto her phone and so it was a massive story.

0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.040
<v Speaker 1>The Murdocks actually had to front to parliamentary inquiry in

0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.080
<v Speaker 1>the UK and that was really pinned on James, and

0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.600
<v Speaker 1>so that's when we get Lachlan coming back into the fold.

0:14:45.760 --> 0:14:48.640
<v Speaker 1>Because Rupert was looking at the job that James was doing.

0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.640
<v Speaker 1>Things were sort of not going too well. And then

0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:56.200
<v Speaker 1>Lachlan makes a great return and the two brothers become

0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.000
<v Speaker 1>co chairs of the entertainment b Meth twenty first Century five.

0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:04.360
<v Speaker 1>So they co chaired the company until twenty nineteen before

0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:07.680
<v Speaker 1>it was sold to Disney. And so this is where

0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.960
<v Speaker 1>things get a bit interesting and the brothers really diverge

0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:15.320
<v Speaker 1>in their parts because Lachlan had a really significant rise

0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:20.480
<v Speaker 1>through the ranks of the Murdoch family business through Fox,

0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:23.840
<v Speaker 1>and it culminated last year when Rupert announced that he

0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.520
<v Speaker 1>was stepping down as the chair of the main two companies,

0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.760
<v Speaker 1>so that's Fox Corp. And News Corp, and that he'd

0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.680
<v Speaker 1>be replaced by Lachlan. But what happened to James, you

0:15:34.760 --> 0:15:38.320
<v Speaker 1>might ask. He stepped away from the family business in

0:15:38.440 --> 0:15:43.080
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty, and he cited some issues that he was having.

0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:46.240
<v Speaker 1>He didn't go into the details of why. But since

0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:50.200
<v Speaker 1>then he's made a pretty startling move from Murdoch, which

0:15:50.360 --> 0:15:53.280
<v Speaker 1>was he criticized the media coverage of the twenty twenty

0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:57.640
<v Speaker 1>US election. Now he didn't specifically speak about his dad

0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.200
<v Speaker 1>or Lachlan. He didn't name them, but he did say

0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:05.720
<v Speaker 1>that the media was responsible for platforming some views spread

0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:10.080
<v Speaker 1>by former President Donald Trump after he lost to Joe Biden,

0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:12.880
<v Speaker 1>saying that the election was reached that there had been

0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.680
<v Speaker 1>voter fraud. So James was very critical of the way

0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:19.960
<v Speaker 1>that the media had handled those allegations. Fox News actually

0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.400
<v Speaker 1>ended up having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars

0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.440
<v Speaker 1>to settle defamation claims after allowing some of Trump's supporters

0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:32.120
<v Speaker 1>to spread false claims of election interference and fraud, and

0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:36.680
<v Speaker 1>James's criticism really didn't go down too well. He reportedly

0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.800
<v Speaker 1>was iced out by the rest of the family after that.

0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.360
<v Speaker 2>And I think this goes to why it's so fascinating,

0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:45.960
<v Speaker 2>because we are talking about really competing ideologies here. You know,

0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:48.600
<v Speaker 2>on the one hand, we have James Murdoch, who has

0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:52.800
<v Speaker 2>criticized the way that platforms like Fox News dealt with

0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:55.720
<v Speaker 2>the twenty twenty election result. And on the other hand

0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.400
<v Speaker 2>we have Lachlan who we know mirrors if not is

0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:02.000
<v Speaker 2>sits to the right of his And so with this

0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:06.160
<v Speaker 2>succession plan, we have the kind of possible future direction

0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:10.919
<v Speaker 2>and political leaning and ideological leaning that comes with it.

0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:13.280
<v Speaker 2>So can you go into a bit of that, like

0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:16.200
<v Speaker 2>why is it so important to be talking about this?

0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:19.320
<v Speaker 1>Well, you touched on some of the reasons why they're

0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:21.800
<v Speaker 1>but I think it is important to note that when

0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:25.000
<v Speaker 1>we talk about the Murdocks, sometimes the news and the

0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:28.359
<v Speaker 1>news industry more broadly gets a little bit obsessed with

0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:32.760
<v Speaker 1>itself and speaks a bit inwardly. But we've got to

0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:36.159
<v Speaker 1>remember news is how we make sense of the world

0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:39.359
<v Speaker 1>and what's going on around us. And when you have

0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.280
<v Speaker 1>a family that controls such a vast portion of the

0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.920
<v Speaker 1>news media industry, then they are going to shape how

0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:51.879
<v Speaker 1>people millions of people are making sense of life around them.

0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.680
<v Speaker 1>And so that's why I think the influence of the

0:17:55.760 --> 0:18:00.240
<v Speaker 1>Murdocks can't really be overstated. There's a hugely consequential election

0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:03.040
<v Speaker 1>happening later this year in the US. I don't have

0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:04.400
<v Speaker 1>to tell you that, Zara.

0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:08.600
<v Speaker 3>Because we've spoken about podcasts on exactly, but it is

0:18:08.640 --> 0:18:11.920
<v Speaker 3>so important how that's going to play out, the outcome

0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.320
<v Speaker 3>of that election, what happens afterwards.

0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:16.560
<v Speaker 1>We saw what happened on January sixth, after the twenty

0:18:16.600 --> 0:18:20.479
<v Speaker 1>twenty election loss for Donald Trump, so the news and

0:18:20.640 --> 0:18:23.160
<v Speaker 1>the media have such a huge role to play in

0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:28.840
<v Speaker 1>that space, and so whoever becomes the new Rupert Murdoch

0:18:29.080 --> 0:18:33.120
<v Speaker 1>effectively is going to have such a vast control and

0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:38.760
<v Speaker 1>decision making power that we probably could never quite imagine

0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:42.359
<v Speaker 1>for ourselves. So when we think about who Lochlan Murdock

0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:46.959
<v Speaker 1>is and how powerful he could become, it's just so

0:18:47.119 --> 0:18:50.240
<v Speaker 1>interesting to think that we actually really don't know that

0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:51.320
<v Speaker 1>much about him.

0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.240
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Harry, I want to end with a question for you.

0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:56.920
<v Speaker 2>We have spoken at length in this podcast about how

0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.800
<v Speaker 2>important Rupert Murdock is and by extension, how important his

0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:04.440
<v Speaker 2>children are. Do you think that their influence is waning

0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:09.280
<v Speaker 2>at all as we see this decentralization of media across the.

0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:13.359
<v Speaker 1>World thanks to a little thing called social media. I

0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:17.120
<v Speaker 1>would say that legacy news definitely doesn't quite have the

0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:21.520
<v Speaker 1>power and reach that it once did. But news organizations

0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:24.920
<v Speaker 1>are on these platforms as well, and they do have

0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:29.359
<v Speaker 1>the capacity to shape the narrative, so to speak, and

0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.159
<v Speaker 1>they also have a responsibility to tell the truth and

0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:36.199
<v Speaker 1>to find the truth. And that sounds very lofty, but

0:19:36.280 --> 0:19:39.120
<v Speaker 1>it's a really important part of democracy, it's a really

0:19:39.160 --> 0:19:43.520
<v Speaker 1>important part of society and behind those courtroom doors in

0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.240
<v Speaker 1>Nevada where there's no media because they can't have any

0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.160
<v Speaker 1>access to what's going on. The fate of the biggest

0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.840
<v Speaker 1>news and media business in the English speaking world is

0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:56.240
<v Speaker 1>hanging in the balance.

0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.080
<v Speaker 2>Harry will certainly be keeping a close eye on this one.

0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.120
<v Speaker 2>Thank you for ex and breaking down all the family

0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:05.360
<v Speaker 2>politics and brought her politics when it comes to this story.

0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.680
<v Speaker 2>Thank you for listening to this episode of The Daily Oas.

0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.439
<v Speaker 2>We would love to hear from you. If you had

0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.520
<v Speaker 2>any thoughts about this story. Who do you think should

0:20:13.560 --> 0:20:16.440
<v Speaker 2>be the successor to Rupert Murdock? You can leave a

0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.399
<v Speaker 2>comment on Spotify. There's a little question box and we

0:20:19.440 --> 0:20:23.200
<v Speaker 2>look forward to reading your answers. We'll be back again tomorrow,

0:20:23.240 --> 0:20:24.680
<v Speaker 2>but until then, have a great day.

0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:29.560
<v Speaker 1>My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda

0:20:29.760 --> 0:20:32.360
<v Speaker 1>Bungelung Calcoton woman from Gadighl Country.

0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:36.320
<v Speaker 3>The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on

0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:38.840
<v Speaker 3>the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to

0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.560
<v Speaker 3>all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations.

0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:44.800
<v Speaker 1>We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries,

0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:46.119
<v Speaker 1>both past and present,