James Murdoch, the 47-year-old youngest son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, has resigned from the board of News Corporation citing “disagreements over editorial content”.
It’s understood James is at odds with his father and older brother Lachlan on their support for Donald Trump and surrounding environmental issues.
James is reportedly a vocal supporter – and financial contributor to – Joe Biden’s presidental campaign. He has also publicly praised China, which has been at odds with much of News Corp’s reporting.
The youngest Murdoch was outspoken against News Corp’s coverage of the Australian bushfires earlier in the year, believing the reporting failed to acknowledge climate change as a cause of the fires.
News Corp, of course, are publishers of such titles as The Australian, The Daily Telegraph locally, The Sun and The Times in the UK and The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post in the US.
In his resignation letter released over the weekend, James said: “My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions.”
James had previously served in a variety of roles in the News Corp empire including executive chairman of UK subsidiary News International, as well as running Murdoch’s television interests in Italy and Asia.
His departure sees older brother Lachlan as the obvious heir apparent to father Rupert’s reign, if and when the 89-year-old stands aside.
However, there has been concerns that Lachlan may push News’ titles and TV shows even further to the right. As an example, Murdoch’s Fox News is often labelled as a mouthpiece for the Trump administration.
In a statement, Lachlan said of his younger brother’s departure: “We’re grateful to James for his many years of service to the company. We wish him the very best in his future endeavours.”
