Murdoch’s son James quits News Corp
NEW YORK: Former 21st Century Fox chief executive James Murdoch, the son of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, has resigned from News Corp’s board citing clashes over editorial content.
The 47-year-old, once seen as his father’s successor, has been openly critical of some media coverage from publishing empire News Corp’s outlets in recent months.
According to a letter written by James Murdoch and released on Friday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, his resignation was due to “disagreements over certain editorial content published by the company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions”.
News Corp owns The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Times and The Sun newspapers among others, but not Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News network.
In January, James denounced the climate change scepticism of some Murdoch media outlets, citing coverage of the fires which devastated large parts of Australia. Rupert Murdoch has said he does not employ climate change deniers, and has previously described himself as a climate “sceptic”. The pair have also diverged politically.
While Rupert Murdoch has been a long-time supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, his son has reportedly donated hundreds of thousands to Democrat challenger Joe Biden’s 2020 poll campaign.
James Murdoch has launched his own private holding company called Lupa Systems, which has taken a stake in Vice Media.