The Chaser Report - Murdoch Family Harmony

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Thanks to a genuinely brilliant piece of journalism, Dom and Charles get to go through the emotional garbage and metaphorical voice-mail between the Murdoch family. Find out what Machiavellian evils Rupert does to his own kin, and what lessons there are to learn from his parenting style.Read The Atlantic's article here:https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/04/rupert-murdoch-family-succession-james-murdoch/681675/Watch OPTICS on ABC iview here:https://iview.abc.net.au/show/opticsCheck out more Chaser headlines here:https://www.instagram.com/chaserwar/?hl=enSpoil the end of Succession here:https://chaser.com.au/support/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Today, an examination of Murdoch family dramas. It's been quite fascinating, isn't it, Charles? We've both come across an article in the Atlantic, not a Murdoch-owned publication, Charles. No, not. But they managed to get access, McKay Coppins, fabulous journalist,

managed to spend quite a lot of time with James Murdoch. Yes. And his wife, Catherine. Now, for those who haven't been following the Murdoch family dramas, James was the bad guy in the whole phone hacking thing because he ran Sky in the UK. But now he's the woke one who wants to talk to the press and basically bring his dad down.

I think he's Kendall Roy, in essence. The extraordinary thing about this article, which I wasn't even going to necessarily read, you know how, like, everyone goes through their Murdoch obsession, but then you come out the other end and you go, it's actually sort of in some ways more boring than succession. Oh, it's much more boring than succession. So why bother?

There's no bore on the floor. It's nice to sort of thing, but it's actually better to just, it's sort of like, I don't know, dog poo or something like that. You just sort of, you try and just, you know, if it happens, you step around it. You step around it. You put it in the bin, you move on, right? Well, but it is such a good piece because he's actually said, I'm going to spill the beans. Like you went, you know, because, and they never do that. They never talk in public. And it's now time for me to just step up and be a total fucklet to my dad.

And who started it and continued it? And there are so many examples. Who knows who started? Probably James, by virtue, of being born in Rupert's perspective, started it. But the endless battle between the different members of the family and some of the little juicy examples of the ways that the Murdoch family related to one another are really interesting. We'll talk about that in a few moments. And Charles, I think we might be able to help our relationship. if we just get a few ideas from the way that they can be made.

Absolutely. I want to start suing you immediately after reading this. So the main thing to note about this article in The Atlantic is that it is unlike almost all of the Murdoch publications. It's incredibly long. It's a really long article. And well researched. And has detailed. With journalism that's clearly been fact checked.

It's very weird. Not the kind of thing you would generally find in. Well, look. Maybe the Wall Street Journal, occasionally. Okay, so I'm just going to do my top ten little spoilers. Top ten spoilers from the article. Because, like, there's just such great. Oh, there's so much stuff.

You should just read it. You definitely shouldn't bother listening to this. But look, we're in a time poor age, Charles. So why don't we just take advantage of that by doing some bullet points? So the first one is, you know how they had that terrible fracar last year where Rupert tried to change the family trust so that Loughlin, just got everything, like a total control. So Loughlin ran, but essentially Loughlin ran the companies and maintained their right-wing editorial position.

Whereas the other three, the two women, I think, Prue and Elizabeth and James were going to outvote Lachlan after he died. Well, that was his paranoid fear. And probably true. And probably quite realistic prediction of the future. Yeah. So my favorite bit of that, though, is that when Rivett first announced that this was what it was going to happen.

It was just like, he just out of the blue announced, okay, I'm changing the trust. Yeah. And Lachlan's getting everything, right? With all these kids having grown up expecting a quarter of their dead's empire, he named, he codenamed that whole plan, the amendment to the trust, Project Family Harmony. Yeah. Like, what, like, that is, that's just so Murdoch. Project Family Harmony, yeah, yeah.

So basically the context is Anna Murdoch, who is the second wife, sat down as part of her divorce. She gave up half of the money she was entitled to if Rupert would do a deal to try and avoid problems after he died, whereby all the four kids who at that point existed, including the one from the first marriage, if they all got a quarter-reach of control. The idea was that would stop the infighting. Yes. Ah, dear. And actually, it's acknowledged later on in the article that James,

He's rueful about the whole idea that this structure would make them work more closely together because he basically implies that him and Loughlin were pitted against each other from day one. Like they literally were born. And suddenly, because they're only 15 months apart, they literally were seen as, okay, who's going to take over the empire. Also worth noting that the two women who have proven themselves massively competent in many professional fields, It's like, you know, what was that company's shine that Elizabeth Murdoch started that did really well? Yes. They've never been in the running because they are women.

Women. Women, yes. And Murdoch, according to James in the article, not us, James, his son is a misogynist. He is a misogynist James said of his father. Yeah, Bruton's and Elizabeth have never been serious contenders to run the business. I just, like, again, that's classic Moodo. This is like, we're only up to paragraph two. It's classic Shifroy, isn't it?

Yeah, I know. It's so good. And, I mean, the thing, the irony of all that is that he seems to think Rebecca Brooks is pretty good at running stuff. Yeah. So maybe he doesn't rate them anyway. Yeah, so that's the thing. It's always been the two boys are vying to take Rupert's job. And the irony, Charles, when he married Wendy Deng and had two more daughters.

Well, yes. No, no, but I think they're not part of the trust. They're not part of the, well, they're not part of the controlling interest. I'm sorry. Yeah, they're not part of it. They don't get to vote. I think that he gets a point. And I think that that was Anna's whole trick was, sure, they can have an economic interest.

in it, but I want my four kids. Like, I want the original four kids. Well, her three and the earlier one. And then the two, the two dang kids are not part of it. It's very complicated. It's a bit like arrested development. It is very like arrested development. It's more arrested development than Succession, really.

Yeah, it is. You think about it. It's a farce. Anyway, so they turn up to the first deposition. So, essentially, Nevada, they set up the trust in Nevada. In Reno. which is a great. Have you ever been to Reno?

Never been to Reno. I went to Reno. I had a layover in Reno. Why don't you go anywhere in Nevada A at all? And B, it wasn't Vegas. It's very strange. Oh, let's see more of this hell hole in the desert. That doesn't have the blue man group.

I didn't realize. I thought it was like, you know, let's go to Reno. I'd never heard of Las Vegas. I'd only heard of Reno. Yeah, right. I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die, said Johnny Cash, because that's how stuck for entertainment. No, but you are in Reno, Nevada.

But I, well, so that is very true. So it's stuck in this airport in Reno. And the only thing to do there is to gamble, right? So they've got pokey machines in the lounge. And so I was just there for several hours. And I was a poor sort of almost just at, no, I was at uni at the time. And I just put some money on a machine and made a hundred bucks. And then just drank beer.

That's as good as it gets to me. So Reno, if you go to Reno, if you want to. gamble, but also Nevada's famous for very flexible family law. That's why all the marriages and divorces. And I listen to a podcast not long ago, actually, about how Reno, like how Nevada in general was actually really way out in front of sort of no-fault divorce. And also, it's a good place to go and get divorced. Yeah, and also renowned for Reno surgery.

Is it? No. Oh. Sorry. What the hell is that? Rinal, Reno. Oh, Reno, Reno. Oh, you could have said Reno.

Why are we brainstorming an even worse joke than that anyway? Moving on, moving on. So James... More fun facts, please. So starting out the lawsuit, James gets sent a packet of documents. This is before the first depositions, right? So this is like, it must be like discovery or whatever. Yeah, they're just getting all the information before the lawsuit.

That's right. And... Rupert includes a note. A handwritten note. Dear James, still time to talk. Love Dad. Still time to talk. Question mark.

Till time to talk? Can we sort this all out with polite conversation? P.S. Love to see my grandchildren one day. Next sentence, James, who could not remember the last time Rupert had taken any interest in his grandchildren, didn't bother to reply. And also, if you're Rupert, you're getting a little bit older. I don't think he's getting at all dottery, evidently.

But you'd be confusing your children and your grandchildren. They're a similar age. Exactly. Very confusing. The Chaser Report. News you can't trust. So James has to do the first deposition for this whole thing. And they don't have to go to Reno for it, thank God.

They can do it in Manhattan. It's like in suits. You sit in a conference centre. Yeah, and they set up a little video camera. And the lawyers, they're questioning you, basically, taking a witness statement. Five hours, this deposition line. Usually the person who's suing you isn't in the room as well. Rupert was in the room.

Rupert was in the room. Rupert was in the room. Rupert's lawyers were in the room. And James, I think, without, you're not really. allowed much assistance from your lawyer, are you? Or it's not a good look if you're sort of deferring to your lawyers. So James has to sort of do it. These

are the sorts of questions that he got asked by Rupert's lawyers. Have you ever done anything successful on your own? I'm going to... He actually did. We'll get to that. It's quite funny what he did. I'm going to get... I can't believe we're taking the side of a Rupert, of a Murdoch, though.

Even if it's not Rupert, like, I feel like we should be sort of like not taking any side. So the lesser Murdoch is still a Murdoch. Rejoicing in the... I'm just noting that I'm going to go home today and ask my kids these questions as well. Yes.

A lot of the other ones. They're great, aren't you? Great parenting. So have you ever done anything successful on your own? Great question. Why were you too busy to wish your dad a happy 90th birthday? Yeah. Why were you too busy to say happy birthday to your father when you turn 90?

Does it strike you that in your account, everything that goes wrong is always somebody else's fault. That's so good. It's such a great question. That's a sort of a question that you do when you're arguing with your partner, isn't it? Yeah, no, that question is just, I have no interest in a relationship with you in the future. And then the attorney referred to James and his sisters as white, privileged, multi-billionaire trust fund babies. I mean, that's a good lawyer.

That's a good lawyer. It was probably just reading James's email signature. Your business card, yeah. And then later in the meeting, he realized. Yes. James realizes that. This is the relationship tip. Yes.

That the questions. No, no. He looks over. He keeps seeing Rupert. Yeah, playing with his phone. Like just staring at him most of the time and then occasionally looking at doing something with his phone, right? And it turns out that a lot of these questions that the lawyer is asking are being

texted by Rupert on the fly. On the fly! Because the lawyer doesn't have the sort of Machiavelli and brilliance. The manipulative thing, the things, like, does it strike to you that in your account everything that goes wrong is always somebody else as well? But that is classic Rupert. So I'm just texting you questions in the middle of the interview. Why are you so embarrassingly incompetent, Charles?

Why? All right. I know. So it's just an amazing relationship management tip. P.S., can I still see the grandkids? Wow. When the session ended, Rupert left the conference room without saying a word. So this is part of why James is so bitter.

So, okay, sidebar, this is getting to be quite a long episode. James Murdoch, I think, funded cooler people that he knew. But nevertheless, he started a thing called Rourke's Records, which was like anything good that any of the kids do eventually bought by news. But a genuinely pioneering and credible hip-hop label. So if you imagine Kendall Roy, but it actually works with hip-hop. Yeah, and James Murdoch did do one thing that genuinely worked on his life. And did James ever sort of fly in on a harness?

I don't know if James ever... Press conference? Ever, you know, spat some bars on a raucous record's cut. But I like to think he did. And then... L to the O.G. And then, to be honest, like the rest of the article, then, it just goes on and on and on. Like, I feel like we've given you a souson.

It's all in the sort of first five minutes of the article. Yeah. Did you get to the end of the article yet, Charles? No, I still haven't. It's so long. I'm savoring it for a little bit later, but there's enough to be getting on with there. So I guess the point is, if you ever just imagine this glamorous life that billionaires have, this incredible wealth and privilege and opportunity, not only does it not make you happy.

No. But it really can actively fuck you up in quite a major way. It makes you very big. I mean, I must say, I grudgingly have a little bit. of respect for James. Simply because I think it would take a lot of therapy to get to the point. Because he sort of, like, one of the other great details. This is the last detail.

And then I promise I won't do any more spoiling. But one of the other things is, at one point, Rupert sends a note and his lawyers attach a quote from King Lear. Oh, yes, this is worth the moment. Which is, and the, oh, let's find the quote. It's about, cordelia. But, yeah, it's good. about, you know, the snake's bite is, is not as, the sting of the snake's bite is not as bad as having an ungrateful child.

Well, I think you've improved upon Shakespeare. I mean, something like that. Yeah, yeah. I think there's a half in there probably. Yeah. The snakes, yeah. And the whole point is that's in reference to Cordelia, who, of course, in King Lear, was the truth teller. Was the person telling the truth?

Yes. Yes. Absolutely. So. So. Lawyers sent that quote. I'm sorry, how sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child. Okay, I think Sharks can't be better.

But no, the point is that completely missed that, yeah, King Lee did not have a thankless child. He had a very honest child telling the truth. But so many, just a couple of minor points on the way out. James Murdoch has spent a lot of time studying dysfunctional families in history. Yes, try and see that. And he's worried that others will repeat the same thing. Hello, Musk, kids. Yeah, because the interesting thing was he quoted Tolstoy in the article.

It's very literary, isn't it? Yeah, he is literary. Because he quotes Tolstoy as, and I'm going to butcher Tolstoy now, which is, you know, happy families are all the same. Unhappy families are all different. Unhappy in their own ways, yeah. And his whole point is no, Tolstoy was an idiot. There are completely common themes in unhappy families,

and they're all fairly similar and everything like that. Indeed. So there you go. But I think my favourite personal moment in the story, and I've heard this before, actually, is that a lot of the family spend a lot of time trying to work out who leaked the plot details, the succession. And in fact, if I recall,

I think one of the recent divorce settlements actually contained a clause allegedly, supposedly, that the person, whoever it was, that Murdoch was divorcing. Was it Matthew Freud maybe? Well, one of the, someone wasn't allowed to leak what points to succession. And there's a little note, a little sidebar in the article, which is like, so I spoke to the writer of success, like Jesse Armstrong, the creative succession about where he got the stories from.

And he was like, we read the newspapers about the Murdox. And you can see how the Murdox would be able to conceive of newspapers that contain useful information. Yes, yes, of course. Yes, they didn't know of such a thing. Go and read the Atlantic. it's the articles longer even than this podcast episode, but it is well worth a read.

Charles, why are the bad things that happen to you, never your fault? Well, they aren't. They're your fault. They're my dad's fault. We're from the Iconiclass network. And if you're Charles's father, that's actionable.