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Murdoch family drama plays out in court with fate of Fox News at stake

If #Rupert #Murdoch, 93, prevails in his legal effort to change voting rights of the #family #trust
to ensure that his chosen successor and conservative-leaning eldest son, #Lachlan Murdoch, 53, runs the company after his death, little may change.

The proceedings pit Murdoch, 93, and his chosen successor, Lachlan, against his three more liberal-leaning siblings, Prudence, Elizabeth and James,
over future control of Murdoch’s #Fox Corp and #News Corp through the family’s control of the global empire’s share structure via an irrevocable trust set up in 1999.

According to the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, Murdoch is arguing that
“shifting voting control of the trust to Lachlan should be allowed because it is in the best interest of all the beneficiaries, including his other children”.

️But if the patriarch loses, the younger brother #James Murdoch, in concert with his sisters #Prudence and #Elizabeth, could force Fox News to move away from the conservative news alignments of their father and brother.

That would be an earthquake in American politics.

No other media power in the US has the impact that Fox News has had in the last two decades.

It has become a driving force of American conservatism, feared for its power by both Republicans and Democrats.

And condemned by many for its conservative bias and numerous show hosts who have become darlings of the US right and powerful players on their own.

Figures such as Sean #Hannity are hugely powerful within the Maga world, while the former host Tucker #Carlson
– now exiled from the station where he rose to power
– has withered outside it and been largely unable to recreate the influence he had while broadcasting to Fox’s viewers.

Gaming out the different scenarios at stake in Reno is water cooler talk at Fox News’s midtown New York headquarters,
with TV hosts discussing a reposition of their own personal brands if liberal-leaning James wins
and opening back-channel communications with him if his father and rival brother prevail.

But despite their immense importance the legal arguments over the Murdoch Family Trust presented within the impenetrable walls of a 1960’s annex court extension in Reno last week are known only to the judge and court staff, Rupert Murdoch, his first and second set of children and an army of lawyers, including Trump’s attorney general William Barr.

“A family trust like the one at issue in this case … is essentially a private legal arrangement,”
the Washoe county probate commissioner Edmund J Gorman Jr, wrote in an 18-page recommendation before the parties convened.

James, Elisabeth and Prudence, want the trust to be maintained and oppose Murdoch’s proposed change giving Lachlan control because they would stand to lose voting power.

Yet while Lachlan’s politics are comfortably rightwing and match his father’s,
the opposing other siblings have a different world view.

James Murdoch even hosted Joe #Biden in his home for a fundraiser in 2022 and has endorsed #Kamala #Harris to beat Trump in 2024.

But it won’t be Fox politics under discussion so much in Reno.
Instead, much of that argument will be couched in an examination of US corporate governance conventions that allow for a family to control a business they do not majority own by a so-called #dual #class structure of shares
– in effect the family shares have more power than others.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/sep/22/murdoch-family-fox-news-court?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Crypto Comes For Sherrod Brown:

$32 Million in Ads Boosting His Opponent

Crypto companies are spending $800,000 a day to take out one of their chief critics in Congress — and replace him with an ally

Late 2023 was not a great time for the crypto industry.

In November, #Sam #Bankman-#Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, learned that no amount of Michael Lewis gymnastics could save him from being convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy.

He was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison after disappearing $11 billion of other people’s money.

The following month, Sen. #Elizabeth #Warren sent letters to three crypto industry giants, the Blockchain Association, Coin Center, and Coinbase, criticizing them for undermining efforts to rein in crypto’s use in #terrorist #financing.

Around the same time, crypto groups began making noises about spending money in 2024 to defeat Ohio Sen. #Sherrod #Brown, the current ️chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Brown is a profound skeptic of the industry and signed off on Warren holding hearings on crypto’s possible links to terrorism.

Asked about the threats, Brown, a mop-topped Democrat with a raspy voice and wry sense of humor, said he was unconcerned.

But Brown had no idea of what was to come.

Rolling Stone has learned that crypto interests are set to spend $32 million on TV ads promoting #Bernie #Moreno, Brown’s Republican opponent, by the end of September, according to Democratic media buyers.

The spending began on August 22
— meaning the crypto interests are spending more than $800,000 per day to flip the Ohio Senate seat, and potentially control of the Senate.

“Outside groups are spending record amounts to try to defeat Sherrod because they know he will always fight for Ohio, not special interests,” said Reeves Oyster, a Brown campaign spokesperson.

So far, the ads have been primarily fluffy positive spots boosting Moreno; some of the spots fearmonger about immigrants and China.

Tracing the roots of "Defend American Jobs" can be as convoluted as tracing crypto currency itself.

The group is effectively a subsidiary of #Fairshake
— the second-largest fundraiser among Super PACs this season according to OpenSecrets,
with over $200 million in its coffers.

The bulk of Fairshake’s money has been donated by three crypto monoliths: Coinbase, Andreessen Horowitz, and Ripple.

#Coinbase and its affiliates have donated $86 million.

The founders of the venture capital firm #Andreessen #Horowitz have together given $44 million.

#Ripple has contributed $25 million. (The #Winklevoss #Twins, who donated nearly $5 million to Fairshake, previously tried to donate $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump
— well beyond what is legal.)

Coinbase’s CEO #Brian #Armstrong has led the latest charge to bring crypto into the political mainstream,
hosting a Super Tuesday rally with Nas in Los Angeles where he proclaimed,
“More Americans own crypto than own electric vehicles or are in a union
— yet some people in D.C. are still underestimating how much and how many people care about crypto.

In 2024, it will become clear that being anti-crypto is bad politics.”

Rep. #Katie #Porter found that out the hard way.

During the California Democratic Senate primary, Fairshake spent over $10 million against her campaign, apparently because she had the temerity to question the energy uses of the industry.

Porter didn’t make the runoff, losing to Adam Schiff, a longtime collaborator with crypto who received an ‘A’ rating from "Stand With Crypto", a self-described grassroots advocacy hub nonprofit led by Coinbase and fronted by Armstrong.

Porter got an ‘F.’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/sherrod-brown-crypto-bernie-moreno-millions-1235102478/