ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
A fierce and soapy family drama is playing out in a probate court in Nevada right now, and it could affect the news that Americans get from outlets like The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Fox News. Yes, we are talking about the $33 billion Murdoch media empire. Rupert Murdoch is squaring off against three of his children in a fight for control, and NPR's David Folkenflik has the details. Hey, David.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: Lawyers for Rupert Murdoch are in court, opposed by three of his eldest children. Why are they on opposite sides of this?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, right now, that trust was set up so that all four of these eldest Murdoch children would have an equal say in what the family trust decided to do with the shares that really control the two halves of the Murdoch empire. That is the print side that does the Journal and Post, as you mentioned, and, of course, the broadcast side that has Fox News. And he wants to undo that. He says his elder son, Lachlan Murdoch, who's helped lead these companies for the last few years alongside him, has shown himself. He wants to undo the trust and say Lachlan Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch alone is going to lead the trust, and therefore have basically effective control of the companies.
SHAPIRO: Why was the trust set up that way?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, it was the result of a bargain and a hard-fought bargain at that. In - a generation ago, Murdoch decided abruptly to leave his wife, Anna Torv Murdoch, as was at the time, for his - what became his third wife, Wendi Deng. And she said, look. I'm going to take only a hundred million dollars - let's put that in quotes - only a hundred million dollars and not fight you for half of your billions of dollars, but I want to protect my three kids. And I want to protect their elder half-sister, Prudence, by Murdoch's first marriage, and say all of them will have a share once you, Rupert, are no longer on the scene. And Murdoch assented to it. He said that's fine.
But, of course, Rupert Murdoch being Rupert Murdoch, he says, years later, two things. One, I built this. This is my vision. This is, you know, I have built this to be a strong and often very conservative media outlet that has allowed me power and influence on countries across the globe. And I want to find a way to make it yield to my desires. And Lachlan buys into that and has shown himself to be cast in my image. And the other kids don't look that way. And the second thing to remember about Rupert Murdoch is he's always been this way. Time and again, he's struck deals, even signed contracts and violated or broken or ignored them when they became inconvenient.
SHAPIRO: Can you tell how likely he is to win this case?
FOLKENFLIK: You know, let me just say this. This is filed in Nevada. And part of that is that these courts are often sympathetic to the very wealthy figures who seek them out, even though, you know, Nevada is not particularly a place where Murdoch has done business. It's been very secretive. Actually, NPR, The New York Times and a handful of other news outlets have been interceded to try to get the judge to consider whether to open this to the public, as might be the case in many other venues. And the trial portion is set to start next week. But I've talked to lawyers, experts in estates, experts in Rupert Murdoch, people who have worked for him for a long time, people who have - affiliated with his kids. And we just don't know how it's going to play out.
SHAPIRO: Well, just in our last 30 seconds or so, families fight all the time over money and inheritance, but how could this affect the news that Americans see from places like Fox or The Wall Street Journal?
FOLKENFLIK: Hugely consequential, right? So Lachlan Murdoch and Rupert are saying in court, we have to run Fox as - they're saying, you know, right-center conservative but really right-wing news outlet. Let's not forget James Murdoch, his other son, has endorsed Kamala Harris for president, not Donald Trump. And so that's a huge question of the tone. James Murdoch and two of his sisters want to pull it more to the center. And the second thing is the other Murdoch kids may well want to sell off other properties rather than let their brother Lachlan run it. They feel like, you know, look. We should see the dividends rather than let him have all the glory. He's just betrayed us.
SHAPIRO: All right. NPR's David Folkenflik. Thank you.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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