EXCLUSIVE: It’s a year to the day since Rupert Murdoch’s big British television bet TalkTV took flight, hitched firmly to the wings of Piers Morgan.
06.04.2023 - 17:05 / variety.com
Katcy Stephan Audible’s hit podcast “Bitter Blood” is back for a second season — and the service has tapped “Succession” star Alan Ruck to narrate a story with as much intrigue and drama as his TV family’s. “Murdoch v. Murdoch,” out April 6, is an eight-part deep dive into the Murdoch family, unearthing the contention and hostilities among the dynasty and its sprawling international media empire. “The Roy culture parallels the Murdoch culture in a lot of ways,” Ruck tells Variety exclusively. The actor didn’t use the real-life Murdochs to inspire his portrayal of Connor Roy, but he did note some similarities: “[Rupert] Murdoch had one child by his first wife, just like Logan. That child is Prudence Murdoch, who, like Connor, is not really involved in the family business at all.”
Through interviews with key insiders and significant archival footage, “Murdoch v. Murdoch” tracks the rise, criticism and controversy of a media juggernaut that began more than 70 years ago. Centered around patriarch Rupert Murdoch and his children, the podcast spotlights the deep rifts and rivalries among a family whose power has grown to influence governments and effectively change the course of history. “Bitter Blood” is produced by AYR Media, with Aliza Rosen and Paulina Williams serving as executive producers. The first season, “Kasem v. Kasem,” revealed the inside story of the lawsuit and elder abuse allegations surrounding the death of radio legend Casey Kasem. From the Disney acquisition to the ongoing Dominion lawsuit, “Murdoch v. Murdoch” examines the fractured internal relationships, dissent and scrutiny that the Murdochs have endured through international scandals, divorces, litigation and $70 billion business deals. “Why people
EXCLUSIVE: It’s a year to the day since Rupert Murdoch’s big British television bet TalkTV took flight, hitched firmly to the wings of Piers Morgan.
Prince William and Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) settled a phone-hacking claim for a “very large sum” three years ago, according to lawyers for William’s brother Prince Harry.
EXCLUSIVE: It’s a year to the day since Rupert Murdoch’s big British television bet TalkTV took flight, hitched firmly to the wings of Piers Morgan.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Grossberg’s claims in the suit are the reason Fox News decided to fire Carlson, a decision made personally by Rupert Murdoch. “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” Fox News Media said in a statement Monday. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”Carlson’s last program aired on Friday, and “Fox News Tonight” will go on at 8 p.m.
Los Angeles Times reported Monday that Carlson’s ouster came at the direction of Rupert Murdoch himself, and is related to a discrimination lawsuit filed earlier this year by former booker Abby Grossberg.
Prince Harry’s battle with the British tabloids will continue this week with the preliminary hearing into his action against The Sun newspaper set to take place in London Tuesday.
$787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems related to lies Fox News told about the 2020 election.“The stupidity in the executive offices at Fox and at the anchor desks led to this outcome which was completely avoidable,” the MSNBC host said during his show on Wednesday. “Someone at Fox could’ve said to the people hosting their shows ‘You can let Rudy Giuliani tell any lie he wants for as long as he wants and at the end of it all you have to say is ‘if that’s true, this is a terrible situation and we’re going to have to do something about that’’ and Fox never could have been sued.
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Let no one deny it: Rupert Murdoch is clever like a fox. He’s slyer than his adversaries in mainstream media. They still think in real-world terms. But Murdoch thinks in terms of the world that he’s created — the world of fake news, of lies that play because they carry the ring of vengeful mythology (life as a Charles Bronson film that never ends). The world that Fox News pretends is reality. You could make a case that in recent weeks, Murdoch’s circus of happy-talk dystopian propaganda (otherwise known as any random half hour of Fox News) took a major hit. The release of documents subpoenaed during the Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News revealed something that was, or should be, profoundly embarrassing to the network: that there are moments when its star huckster, Tucker Carlson, actually tells the truth (at least in private). The revelation that Carlson, along with a number of Fox News executives, peddled Donald Trump’s crackpot assertion that he won the 2020 election not because they believed it, but because they thought they had to go along with what their viewers wanted to hear, made the Fox team look like craven cowards. The lawsuit never made it to trial, but because those documents were leaked you could say the damage was done. And to keep the trial from happening, Murdoch had to cough up the mother of all defamation settlements: $787.5 million.
A jury has been seated in the Dominion vs. Fox News trial, kicking off at last what is being billed as the “defamation trial of the century,” with the prospect of the network’s star hosts and Rupert Murdoch himself taking the stand.
After a one-day delay and amidst whispers of settlement talks, Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation trial against Fox News is set to begin Tuesday in Wilmington, DE.
Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Rupert Murdoch can breathe easy for at least one more day. The judge overseeing the much-scrutinized defamation trial brought against Fox News and its parent, Fox Corp., has delayed its start by a day, according to a statement issued by Delaware’s Superior Court, where the case is being heard. The decision is sure to raise speculation that the two sides may be seeking a settlement. “The Court has decided to continue the start of the trial, including jury selection, until Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. I will make such an announcement tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. in Courtroom 7E,” Judge Eric Davis said in a note Sunday evening.
Succession as part of her divorce settlement from Rupert Murdoch.The HBO series, which stars Brian Cox as Logan Roy, is partially inspired by the Murdoch family, along with other media mogul families like the Redstones and Mercers. “The amazing thing about this stuff is that it’s everywhere,” show creator Jesse Armstrong told The New York Times in 2019.“Sumner Redstone’s family. The Mercers.
READ NOW: Joe Jonas shares brutal verdict Wetherspoons experience on UK tripThe multibillionaire media mogul, who counts himself among the top 32 wealthiest people in the USA, called time on his marriage with Jerry Hall last year. She was reportedly given a deadline of 30 days to move out of the luxury home the pair shared and into a different property in Oxfordshire solo. According to Vanity Fair, the happy marriage celebrations the pair shared back in 2016 were marred by the media mogul coming down with the flu.
his own investigation into the Murdoch family and Fox News, argues the 92-year-old is actually a “very old man” whose health has been “failing for a very long time.” And on “CNN This Morning” Thursday, co-host Don Lemon reported that “there are signs” that HBO’s hit drama “Succession” “has been getting under his skin.”“I think now we’re just catching up to the fact that he’s a shell of what he used to be,” Sherman told Lemon, breaking down his viral deep-dive on the media mogul and his family, published Wednesday via Vanity Fair. Sherman argued that Dominion Voting System’s defamation lawsuit against Fox News has been a direct result of Murdoch’s “diminished leadership.”“There has really been this vacuum at the top of the company and it allowed all of these Dominion falsehoods and these lies to get onto the air on Fox, because they put ratings above all else,” he explained.
Succession writers”, a new report has claimed.Since the multi-award-winning HBO show debuted in 2018, many parallels have been drawn between the fictional media family the Roys and the real-life Murdochs.Despite this, no explicit confirmation of any direct inspiration has been given by the show’s creators.In a new feature on the Murdochs for Vanity Fair, a source is cited claiming that Lachlan accused his brother James Murdoch of leaking stories about the family to the writers of the show, with Lachlan then telling his father Rupert.The feature adds that a separate source close to Lachlan denies that any stories were sold.Season four of Succession is currently airing on HBO, and fans have reacted to the “magnificent” twist in its latest episode.Spoilers for Succession season four below.In the episode titled Connor’s Wedding, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) departs on a flight to Sweden with some of his closest advisors to negotiate a new deal with Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård), while Logan’s children Roman (Kieran Culkin), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Kendall (Jeremy Strong) attend their brother’s wedding on a cruise ship in New York.While Connor (Alan Ruck) is hopeful his father will make time for a fly-by visit, Roman, Kendall and Shiv are soon informed by Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) over the phone that Logan has fallen ill during the flight and has become unresponsive.After some emotional final goodbyes over the phone, Logan is later pronounced dead when the private plane lands back on US soil.
Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” with Colin Jost and Michael Che took multiple swings at Fox News and Donald Trump on the show.
Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch could be called upon to testify in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit suit against Fox News and Fox Corp., per a Delaware judge who says he is not against calling upon the media moguls. If the attorneys for Dominion issue trial subpoenas to force a testimony from the Fox leaders, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis said at a public hearing Wednesday he, “would not quash it and I would compel them to come,” per NBC News. “It would be my discretion that they come,” Davis said. Dominion’s attorneys requested in a letter to the court Wednesday that live testimony be required from Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, as well as Fox board member and former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Fox exec Viet Dinh. Davis approved the request to compel each of them to testify, according to NBC News.
Rupert Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corporation board member Paul Ryan and Fox Corp. executive Viet Dinh can be compelled to testify in Dominion’s upcoming defamation trial against Fox News, a judge said on Wednesday.
the reported that Murdoch popped the question to the 66-year-old former San Francisco police chaplain, whom he planned to marry in late summer 2023.«I was very nervous. I dreaded falling in love -- but I knew this would be my last.
UPDATED: Rupert Murdoch and Ann Lesley Smith are no longer engaged, Deadline has confirmed, only weeks after news that the two were planning to tie the knot this summer. Smith was set to be wife No. 5 for the media mogul and chairman of Fox Corp.