Murdoch Stepping Down as Fox Chair
Fox and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is stepping down from the boards of both companies, said a Fox news release Thursday. After the mid-November shareholder meetings for both companies, his son Lachlan Murdoch will move from co-chairman of News…
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Corp. to sole chairman and continue as executive chairman and CEO of Fox. Murdoch will become chairman emeritus of both companies. Murdoch was CEO of 21st Century Fox from its beginning as News Corporation in 1979 until 2015, and then chairman until it combined with Disney in 2019, when Fox was launched as a stand-alone company. “I have been engaged daily with news and ideas, and that will not change,” Murdoch reportedly told employees in a memo about the move. Rupert Murdoch’s direct oversight of Fox, its stations and its programming is a key point in the Media and Democracy Project’s petition to block the license renewal of Fox-owned station WTXF-TV Philadelphia (see 2307060065). “This announcement has zero impact on the FCC filings regarding the Fox broadcast licenses” given “that the Trust he controls has a controlling stock interest in Fox, the fact that his Son remains Chair and CEO, and the fact that the same cadre of executives who knowingly and repeatedly presented false news remains,” Fox opponent Preston Padden emailed.