Controversial media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced on Thursday his intention to step down from his role as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp. His eldest son, Lachlan, will take over the role.
“The time is right for me to take on different roles, knowing that we have truly talented teams and a passionate, principled leader in Lachlan who will become sole chairman of both companies,” Mr Murdoch wrote in a memo to employees.
Murdoch’s favourite pastime drew him to Silver City—gambling. As he explained to his one-time biographer, Simon Regan, “I love to play it. You bet on a run. You go in with a couple of quid and two, four, eight, you double it all the time. If you’re betting on, say, heads, you can make hundreds if you get a run. Then it comes down tails and you’re all through. The real game is the gamble on exactly when to stop.”
The media mogul had strong professional links to Broken Hill; radio station 2BH was part of the media portfolio left for Rupert by his father, Keith.
Highly notorious, Mr Murdoch will no doubt be remembered as someone who shaped news as we know it, but also as a problematic figure.
This sentiment was highlighted by Greens Party Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who described Murdoch’s legacy as a “cancer on democracy.” “It is undeniable that Rupert Murdoch and his empire have been a corrosive cancer on democracy here and around the world. History will judge his influence as disastrous for humanity and the planet.
“Decades of climate denialism, phone hacking, political meddling and manipulation, and Fox News’ dangerous culpability for the January 6 riots show Rupert Murdoch has been one of the great scourges of the modern age.”
