The real Succession: Who will inherit Murdoch’s media empire?

From the Leveson inquiry to the Trump campaign, ideological tensions have continued to bubble away in the Murdoch family… and it could mean the throne is left empty, writes Chris Horrie

Rupert Murdoch arriving with his sons Lachlan and James at a celebratory event after his marriage to Jerry Hall in 2016 (Getty)

April 2012: Rupert Murdoch is sitting in front of inquisitors at the Leveson commission hearing, an official inquiry into phone hacking and other illegal acts carried out on a massive scale by reporters working for his British tabloids – the original source of his wealth and power. Sitting at his side is the dapper and restrained figure of James Murdoch, Rupert’s youngest son. At that time James was Rupert’s deputy as head of all Murdoch media operations outside the US. As such James was destined to succeed as head of the worldwide media empire his ageing father had created. Or so it seemed.

In a dramatic moment televised live to a worldwide audience, Rupert Murdoch declared himself to have been humbled by hearing the evidence about intrusion into grief and privacy, and said it was the worst day of his life. This was the soundbite that carried the following day on his TV stations and on the front pages of his papers on three continents and all the major cities of the English-speaking world. James calmly kept a straight bat through the proceedings, essentially claiming that the wrongdoing had been carried out by rogue employees who had betrayed their trust and that he and Rupert knew nothing about the whole sorry state of affairs.

During the proceedings the Murdoch family had been described as being “a criminal enterprise”. James was declared by parliament to be unfit to run any major company. Essentially James took the bullet for his father. James would never again be fully trusted by investors or regulators with running a news organisation. His path to succession in the empire was thus effectively blocked.  Maybe this was no bad thing. James had in fact been surprised to find himself in the role of heir apparent in the first place, and obviously horrified to find himself in the Leveson hot seat – the face of wrongdoing on a gigantic scale which he had not designed, envisaged or possibly even imagined. James had led a privileged and even insulated life in New York and London, been given jobs within the empire with fancy titles and astronomic salaries, while keeping the seedier tabloid engine room of the empire at arm’s length.