Succession: News

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Return To The Good Old Days Scribes Back By Popular Demand!

For Entertainment Purposes Only; Media Storylines Not Seen On TV or published in newspapers

Op Gonzo satire: VKM is Logan Roy. Triple H is Kendall Roy. Shane O' Mac is Greg. Adam Pearce is Roman. Steph is Shiv Roy. Nick Khan is a "greybeard" Karl. Mattson is Easy Eric B. D. Dude is Connor or Tom. *no comment on "Willa".

(For entertainment purposes). Satire.

This flashback goes back approximately two years, with some more recent additions. Some details are purposely left grey or vague.

Some of the scenes in Succession can draw some comparisons to some developments in the current Murdoch empire. Much like Nostradamus quatrains aka Les Prophéties, we're not going to "spell out" specifics. The audience and readership can draw their own conclusions. Use of imagination to "take you everywhere" as the legendary Albert Einstein is encouraged. Timelines may differ. Think like a Nikola Tesla time machine!

Keep in mind that in the past few years the landscape of both the professional wrestling and news media industry has changed considerably.

Examples could include that according to mainstream media such as The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Australian Financial Review, there are numerous legal situations afoot, behind the scenes of the Murdochs', primarily concerning a number of siblings. This has been making the rounds at Australian based newspapers and starting going much more public circa June 2024.

World's leading professional wrestling promotion, the WWE, has undergone numerous high level management changes over the past few years and is currently doing record breaking business. Media firms following the situation and business closely such as the Media Man Group aka Media Man Australia, has advised that the WWE is currently enjoying glory days and a new golden era, also known as The Triple H era. Staff, management and talent morale, conditions of employment and contacts have improved significantly and more wrestling legends have returned to the WWE fold, partly as a public show of support - Jesse 'The Body' Ventura being the most recent high profile wrestling legend to return to WWE television. How much more upcoming TV time Ventura receives via the WWE machine is not known to the general public, or to many people for that matter.

Succession is a TV series with fictional characters, some of which has been widely speculated to be various members of the Murdoch family media dynasty, as well as some associates.

Many family businesses have interesting twists and turns going on for real in the business structure, and as witnessed, the pro wrestling and media empire sector make for good and usually interesting and entertaining fodder when adapted to the TV series medium. Some of the family dynasty's even make it to the big screen such as 'The Iron Claw' based on the trials and tribulations of the famous Von Erich pro wrestling promotion based in Dallas, Texas.

As one might expect, when family and big business drama series, movies and such are adapted, numerous details are left out and left vague for a variety of reasons spanning legal, marketing, entertainment factor and other.

There are currently a number of interesting situations and scenarios playing out in the real world in both big media and big time professional wrestling.

From time to time we may provide an update, and if so, it will likely be a satire and entertainment approach, rather than other. We enjoy good lines of communication with many mainstream news media companies and world's leading professional wrestling firms and will publish and report news on a goodwill basis with the highest of respect shown for any individuals concerned. Again, satire, with a dose of gonzo journalism, while focussing on the positives.

Until next time, that's it from us - wrestling with media.

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Real-life Succession: How Lachlan Murdoch inherited his father’s media empire

Rupert Murdoch’s long and often bitter succession battle has ended; with a $3.3 billion deal, Lachlan Murdoch takes control of the family’s global media empire while his siblings step aside with billions

In the third episode of the final season of Succession (spoiler alert), Logan Roy, founder and head of Waystar Royco, dies of a heart attack aboard his private jet. For two full seasons leading up to this moment, Roy never declared who among his three children would inherit his media empire. Jesse Armstrong, the show’s creator, has always insisted that despite the similarities, the Roy family is not based on the Murdochs, who control the global media giants Fox Corporation and News Corp. He said he drew inspiration from several billionaire families.

Five years before Armstrong killed off Logan Roy on screen, Rupert Murdoch stumbled on his way to the bathroom aboard a yacht owned by his son Lachlan that was en route to the Caribbean. He was taken to a Los Angeles hospital with an epidural hematoma. His then-wife, Jerry Hall, called his other three children—Prudence, James and Elisabeth—who were dreaming of inheriting the empire, to come and say goodbye.

Together with Lachlan, the four surrounded their father’s hospital bed, ready to fight for their inheritance. But unlike the series, Murdoch, then 87, survived and recovered. Now, at 94, he has lived to see the succession battle end with victory for his chosen son.

Lachlan received word of his win at his 54th birthday party earlier this month. The family empire, built over more than 70 years by Rupert, is now officially his. A $3.3 billion deal with three of his five siblings guarantees Lachlan control of the company until at least 2050. Each of the three siblings—Prudence, 67; Elisabeth, 57; and James, 52—will receive $1.1 billion.

Rupert’s two youngest daughters, Grace, 24, and Chloe, 22, from his marriage to Wendi Deng, will benefit from a separate trust.

A happy ending for all sides

In the end, everyone seems to get what they want. Lachlan gains control. Prudence, Elisabeth and James—who are all less conservative—get to detach from a media empire they often opposed politically while adding more than a billion dollars to their inheritance. They also secured far more than Lachlan initially offered during negotiations. Rupert, for his part, receives the assurance that his life’s work, which he once described as “a shield for the conservative voice in the English-speaking world,” will continue.

Rupert Murdoch stepped down as chairman two years ago, handing over power to his son. Since then, Lachlan has served as executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corporation, which runs Fox News. He is also chairman of News Corp, the family’s publishing arm that owns HarperCollins. In the past two years, he has acquired digital media firm Red Seat Ventures, launched the Fox One streaming app and bought a third of Penske Entertainment, owner of the IndyCar racing series.

The most important aspect of the succession deal is not day-to-day operations, but rather that it preserves Rupert Murdoch’s conservative project—an unusual blend of ideology and business savvy. Seeing a gap in America’s media landscape, he rushed to fill it. One reason Rupert chose Lachlan was that he is the most conservative of his children. Ideology was the top priority.

Lachlan, the third of Rupert’s six children, was born in London in 1971 and raised in New York. He studied philosophy at Princeton and showed conservative leanings even in high school. In a 2022 speech at a conservative think tank, he warned about “relentless attacks on core values” and the rewriting of history—language that echoed right-wing cultural critiques, though the exact phrasing differs in reports.

For more than a year, Rupert and Lachlan pressed to amend the family trust, which had been set to expire in 2030. Under the original terms, if Rupert had died before then, Prudence, Elisabeth and James could have formed a voting bloc to block Lachlan from keeping Fox’s conservative line. After 2030, they would have been free to sell their shares, effectively ending family control.

After graduating, Lachlan moved to Australia, his father’s homeland, to work in the family newspaper business. He stumbled several times but scored one major win: acquiring 60 percent of real estate advertising firm REA Group, now worth billions.

Returning to New York as deputy chief operating officer of News Corp, Lachlan clashed with Roger Ailes, Fox News’ powerful chief. Rupert sided with Ailes, and Lachlan quit the company in 2005, returning to Australia.

He spent the next decade investing in Australian media while his younger brother James took on larger roles at News Corp. Lachlan returned in 2014, after a reconciliation. Ailes died in 2017, less than a year after leaving Fox amid sexual misconduct allegations. Since then, Rupert and Lachlan have been inseparable. In 2019, Lachlan played a central role in selling 21st Century Fox’s entertainment assets to Disney in a $72 billion deal—cementing his place as heir apparent.

Family divisions

As early as the 1990s, Rupert hinted that Lachlan, then in his 20s, could succeed him. But the decades since unfolded like a billionaire soap opera. His main rivals were James and Elisabeth. Prudence, his eldest daughter, preferred to stay on the sidelines. In practice, James was the only one who truly fought for the throne.

But his chances were crippled by two blows. First came the phone-hacking scandal at News of the World, a Murdoch tabloid shuttered in 2011 after it was revealed that reporters had hacked the phones of some 600 celebrities, politicians and even royals, while bribing police for information. James was then in charge of the company’s newspapers.

The second and final blow was the Trump era. James, far less conservative than his father or brother, resigned from the News Corp board in 2020. In an interview with The Atlantic earlier this year, he recalled expecting Lachlan to resist Trump’s rise but was stunned when Lachlan backed him. James did not use the phrase “disgusting stance” verbatim, though Israeli coverage paraphrased his frustration in those terms.

“I think James is embarrassed by Fox News. I don’t think Lachlan is,” Australian billionaire James Packer said last year. “Lachlan is proud of Fox News, and that’s probably one reason why he is where he is, and James is not.”

Lachlan’s willingness to let Fox News hosts promote false claims about the 2020 election was revealed in court documents from Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit. Fox ultimately settled for $787.5 million, and star host Tucker Carlson was forced out. But Lachlan’s reputation remained largely unscathed. Fox not only survived—it grew in viewership and influence.

Murdoch’s empire is now more powerful than ever in Trump’s America. Fox News’ reach represents the realization of Ailes’ vision. A close adviser to President Richard Nixon, Ailes founded the channel convinced that if Nixon had a media arm like Fox, he would never have resigned after Watergate. Even Ailes probably did not imagine how right he was.

Keeping the legacy alive

The succession plan Rupert and Lachlan called “Project Family Harmony” mirrors the current deal: the siblings get money, Lachlan gets the empire. It caused friction within the family, but Rupert—arguably one of the most influential figures of the past 30 years—was not about to change course. For him, nothing mattered more than protecting his legacy, which began 71 years ago with a small newspaper in Adelaide he inherited from his father—only after buying out his own brother’s share, much as Lachlan has now done with his siblings.

Lachlan is married to former model Sarah Murdoch, with whom he has three children. The family relocated to Sydney during the COVID-19 pandemic, and he now calls himself a “proud Australian.” The looming question is whether he can devote himself to the kind of political influence his father wielded in America—and whether he can do so while living 14 hours from New York and 17 from Los Angeles. Last year he flew all of Fox’s top executives to Australia for budget meetings, but it is unclear if that is sustainable. If necessary, he could always return to Los Angeles, where he owns an estate with 18 bedrooms and 24 bathrooms. (Wires, X, Wikipedia, News, AI)

Murdoch family fights attempt to televise Succession-style legal battle - September 2024

The Murdochs are fighting an attempt to televise their Succession-style legal battle in a row over the family’s right to privacy.

Rupert Murdoch and his children are preparing for a blockbuster two-week trial that is likely to determine the future direction of the family’s media empire.

The 93-year-old mogul is attempting to change the terms of the family trust to hand sole control to his eldest son, Lachlan, after he dies.

It has triggered a legal battle with his other children – James, Elisabeth and Prudence – who argue they will be robbed of their say in how the empire is run.

The legal showdown has sparked comparisons to Succession, the hit show about the inheritance struggles of a US media dynasty that was partly based on the Murdoch family.

But the trial, which begins in Nevada on Tuesday (US time), could itself hit the small screen after a petition was filed to allow the proceedings to be televised.

Efforts by the Murdochs to rely on privacy arguments will raise eyebrows given the chequered history of the family’s own media empire.

Alex DeGroote, media analyst

Alexander Falconi, a software engineer and legal activist, has launched an attempt to unseal the court case and allow cameras into the courtroom.

In legal documents filed with the Second Judicial District Court, which were first reported by Puck, Falconi argued that the press had a “constitutional right of access” to view the proceedings, citing the First Amendment.

“It is inconsistent to seek the benefits of the public judicial system and its associated constitutional protections while simultaneously attempting to shield the proceedings from public scrutiny and constitutional protections of the press’ right to access,” the documents state.

“This approach is self-contradictory and undermines the principles of open justice and transparency that are fundamental to the American legal system.”

Falconi founded the campaign group Our Nevada Judges, which is aimed at improving transparency over the state’s legal system. Nevada is a popular location for family trusts because of favourable laws and privacy protections.

Falconi scored a major victory in February, when the Supreme Court of Nevada ruled there was a constitutional right for family court proceedings to be open to the public. He is using this victory as a precedent for his petition in the Murdoch trial.

But the Murdochs’ lawyers have pushed back against the move, arguing that there is a “compelling interest” in keeping the case out of the public eye to protect confidential information.

Edmund Gorman, the probate commissioner for Washoe County, has sided with the family, arguing that filming the case would harm their right to privacy and could put their safety and wellbeing at risk.

Gorman wrote: “Certain parties and witnesses in this case are nationally prominent figures who have received significant media attention in the past. Electronic coverage of the hearings in this case could expose these persons’ whereabouts, travel plans, and other information that could be exploited by malicious actors.”

The final decision on whether to allow cameras at the trial will rest with Washoe County Judge David Hardy.

Media analyst Alex DeGroote says it is unsurprising that the Murdochs are resisting the petition.

“You don’t wash your dirty linen in public,” he said. “There is so much at stake in terms of voting rights and control.”

Still, efforts by the Murdochs to rely on privacy arguments will raise eyebrows given the chequered history of the family’s own media empire.

The media empire has spent more than £1 billion ($2 billion) on damages and legal fees relating to historical phone hacking claims at the now-defunct News of the World.

In April, Hugh Grant settled his case against the publisher of The Sun for an “enormous” sum of money.

The Notting Hill actor insisted he did not want to accept a settlement over his accusations that journalists used private detectives to tap his phone and burgle his house, but that a trial would have proved too expensive.

News Group Newspapers denies the claims and said the settlement was reached without admission of liability.

Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to overhaul the family trust, dubbed “Project Harmony”, will have significant implications for the future of the media empire, which includes the Sun and Times newspapers, as well as Fox News in the US.

In recent years, Lachlan emerged in pole position to take over the reins after adopting the roles of chief executive and chairman of TV group Fox Corporation in 2019 and chairman of News Corp last year.

The 52-year-old is viewed as the most conservative of Murdoch’s children and, as such, is most closely aligned with his father’s views.

James and Elisabeth, who were both previously regarded as potential candidates to take over the family business, are more liberal than their father and have both publicly criticised the nonagenarian’s newspapers and TV channels.

Lawyers for Murdoch argue that handing sole control to Lachlan will be good for all the siblings, as it reduces the risk of divided control that could undermine the business and damage their inheritance.

But the move has been widely regarded as an effort by the tycoon to ensure there is no softening of the right-wing politics that has come to define his media empire.

While the family trust is classed as “irrevocable”, it is believed to contain a provision allowing for changes to be made in good faith if they have the sole purpose of benefiting all the beneficiaries. The two-week trial will be tasked with determining if Murdoch is in fact acting in good faith.

A spokesman for the Murdoch family has been contacted for comment. (Wires)