When Rupert Murdoch married for the fifth time this past June, the wedding was absent a few notable guests: three of his four eldest children, James, Elisabeth and Prudence.
“That was a sign to ‘Murdoch watchers’ that something was up,” said Jim Rutenberg, a New York Times reporter who broke the news about Mr. Murdoch’s engagement. Mr. Rutenberg, who writes about politics and culture, has long reported on the Murdoch family. In 2019, he and Jonathan Mahler wrote an exhaustive article for The Times Magazine about the Murdochs’ sprawling media empire and its global influence.
“That, for better or worse, sort of cemented us as the experts on this family,” said Mr. Mahler, who covers various topics for the magazine, including politics and entertainment.
Last month, the reporters published an article that exposed the familial rift: According to a sealed court document, Mr. Murdoch, 93, alongside his eldest son and chosen successor, Lachlan, is locked in a secret legal battle against three of Lachlan’s siblings. The outcome will determine who will have control of the empire after Mr. Murdoch’s death.
In a recent interview, Mr. Rutenberg and Mr. Mahler spoke about the challenges of their reporting and why they think readers are so fascinated by the Murdoch family drama. These are edited excerpts.
How did you find out about this legal battle?
JIM RUTENBERG We can’t really talk about the origins of the story because it was based on a sealed court record. What we can say is that we’re constantly checking in on this family. We’d always known there was a potential to be an ultimate clash over the trust and the future of the company when Rupert died, with three children on one side and Lachlan and his father on the other.
JONATHAN MAHLER Basically, there was a structural problem with the trust that we identified in our reporting for the magazine. It seemed like that was going to cause trouble at some point, whether it was before Rupert died, after or maybe both.
How challenging is it to comb through legal documents and make them comprehensible to readers?
RUTENBERG It took a lot to marry the compelling human drama with very dry legal aspects of this case. With court records, there’s sometimes a narrative that can be followed easily. But this was very dense law. It was very complicated. This trust, in terms of law, in terms of structure … we couldn’t even get into all that. We would have lost the readers.
MAHLER Trusts and estates law filings don’t generally make for dramatic or easy reading. And the other tricky thing was that the document contained a judgment, a decision that followed lots of proceedings, testimony and depositions that we didn’t have. There was a lot contained in this document, and it took some work to figure out how to unpack it. It was one piece of a much bigger puzzle.
Why do you think readers are so fascinated by the Murdochs?
MAHLER It’s amazing, Shakespearean drama. These people have become familiar characters — Lachlan, James, Rupert. People know them now. And I do think that with the future of Fox News, there is a part of this that isn’t just prurient interest. It’s about the future of media, our democracy, our country and even the world. Part of it is also, “My God, this family has an enormous amount of power.” And that power may now be up for grabs.
RUTENBERG It’s the height of human drama with the height of geopolitical stakes. It really matters. We’ve always been interested in this political split, most typified by the tension between Lachlan and James. James Murdoch always thought Fox was going too far during the Trump era, too far beyond any sense of journalism. The fact is that if James and his sisters were to take over, they could very well reground the most politically influential news network in our country. That really could affect national civic life.
What might happen next for this family?
RUTENBERG Until the trial, we’re in a holding pattern. These were supersecret proceedings that nobody knew about for months. It’s possible that if there’s a decision, we might not find out about it right away. In the days since our story broke, it’s been very hard to get more information. The parties involved aren’t allowed to talk about this.
MAHLER This case is going to determine a lot. If Rupert is successful in changing the trust, he will have probably secured the political future of his empire. On the other hand, his other children may resist. They may try to find a way to fight back. This case will be an important next chapter, but not necessarily the last chapter. Although it is true that if Murdoch manages to change the trust, he’ll have what he wants; he’ll have Lachlan in power. If he doesn’t, you have to imagine this will raise the tension in the family that much higher.
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