How Rupert Murdoch’s Empire of Influence Remade the World
Rupert Murdoch suffered a serious spinal injury in January 2018 that forced his adult children to contemplate succession for the first time, raising questions about who would control his sprawling global media empire and its outsized political influence across the English-speaking world. The piece traces how Murdoch built this empire by using his outlets to support favored political candidates and then leveraging those relationships to remove regulatory obstacles to his expansion, a formula his father Keith pioneered in Australia and that Rupert perfected across Britain and America, particularly through Fox News's role in amplifying right-wing populism including Trump's rise. The narrative reveals deep tensions between Murdoch's sons—the idealistic, centrist James who wanted to modernize the company and his more conservative older brother Lachlan, whom Murdoch ultimately favored—and explains how the controlling family trust structure means that Murdoch's death would trigger a power struggle that could reshape global politics.