Rupert Murdoch’s move to squeeze three of four eldest children out of controlling his media empire was arguably the biggest dice-roll of his 70-year business career. And he failed.
The hubris that made him believe safeguarding his legacy as a media mogul was more important than the future of his family will now reverberate.
The risks for Rupert were enormous: win or lose, he stood to blow up the already fraying fabric of the Murdoch family. But a loss has added the venom of galvanising three of his children (Prudence, Elisabeth and James) against his firstborn son and anointed successor, Lachlan.
Perhaps the most indefensible element of Murdoch’s attempt to remove three of his children’s say in the empire’s future, and eliminate family democracy, was that he was punting Lachlan’s future as head of the business.
James, Elisabeth, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch in happier times.Credit: Getty Images
While Rupert would argue that his legacy is important, he clearly won’t be around to deal with the aftermath of family destruction that has been wreaked by his insistence on installing Lachlan as sole heir to the $US42 billion ($66 billion) News Corporation empire.
The irony is that this plan to anoint Lachlan, which has ended as an incendiary device ready to blow the Murdoch family apart, was code-named “Project Family Harmony”. Now, a month from his 94th birthday, Rupert will probably spend his remaining years enduring various degrees of estrangement from all but one of his four eldest children.
The mogul is no stranger to shifting allegiances with his children, having played Russian roulette with his relationships with them for decades. As a master puppeteer, Rupert exercised control over Lachlan, James and Elisabeth by dangling the prospect of one of them becoming ultimate ruler.
It was an enticing drug for these children. For example, when James was professionally injured after his role in running the British division at the time of the phone hacking affair, it was Elisabeth who suggested he needed to take one for team Murdoch.
As it turns out, it was her father who gave her the gun and pointed her in the direction of the barn.
