Jane Smith
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Senior Putin aide against temporary Ukraine ceasefire
Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors, we cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer.
Global News Podcast
Senior Putin aide against temporary Ukraine ceasefire
He made a billion, but is he good, bad, or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire, listen on the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Global News Podcast
Senior Putin aide against temporary Ukraine ceasefire
Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors, we cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer.
Global News Podcast
Senior Putin aide against temporary Ukraine ceasefire
He made a billion, but is he good, bad, or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire, listen on the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Global News Podcast
Senior Putin aide against temporary Ukraine ceasefire
Pop stars and tech titans, founders and filmmakers, inventors and investors, we cover them all. And for the first time, we're talking about a video game designer.
Global News Podcast
Senior Putin aide against temporary Ukraine ceasefire
He made a billion, but is he good, bad, or just another billionaire? Find out on Good Bad Billionaire, listen on the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Hopefully it doesn't feel like too much of a slog. It is long. No, it's not a slog. But I know when you write something that long, the thought is like, you have to take extra care to make sure it's not boring because you'll lose people, you know?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Wir haben es nicht mal darüber gesprochen, dass es ein Buch werden würde. Und ich muss sagen, dass es sich in ein paar Monaten in den Prozess gekommen ist, dass es vielleicht sein sollte. oder zumindest, zuerst einmal, könnte es mehr lukrativ sein, obwohl der Atlantik mich sehr gut zahlt, etc.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Aber, du weißt, ich denke, dass es einen Urgenzielement dazu gibt, du weißt, so viel wie, um, das ist kind of a timeless story and we talk about how the Murdochs kind of resemble these dynastic families throughout history, um, it also, um, I was catching the Murdochs at this moment where the family was melting down over the control of the empire.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
And the problem with a book is that like that's a multi-year process to get it out. And who knows how things would have changed by then. So I really appreciated that the Atlantic could get it into the bloodstream at this kind of moment.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ja, genau. Das ist das, was die Geschichte gemacht hat, was es an Werten gab, richtig? Weil auf einem Niveau ist das wie ein menschlicher Dramatik über diese Familie, die sich entfaltet. Und wenn du die Session siehst, fühlst du dich sehr bekannt. Oder wenn du, ehrlich gesagt, griechische Tragödie liest, fühlst du dich auch bekannt. King Lear, Shakespeare, was auch immer.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Aber die Werten sind, dass das, glaube ich, die größte, Powerful, certainly conservative media empire in the Western world, one of the most powerful media empires in the world. And they have become very deliberately the organ of this right wing populism that you're talking about. Und wir sehen es in den Fox News hier in den USA.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Aber dieses Empire, diese Medienanlagen haben eine wichtige Rolle gespielt im Brexit. Sie haben eine wichtige Rolle gespielt in den Regierungen in Europa. Ich meine, sie wissen, wenn diese Anlagen die Hände verändern und die Richtung verändert, verändert es dramatisch, wie Politiker auf der rechten Seite durch die englischsprachige Welt mit ihren Audienzen verbinden.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ja, ja. Und das, was alle von ihnen verbindet, ist, dass es immer gewesen ist, und das geht zurück zum Anfang in Australien, diese Art von Puckisch-Anti-Establishment-Streak, der alle von den ersten australischen Nachrichten, die Rupert kauft, zu den Tabloiden auf Fleet Street, zu certainly Fox News, die Murdoch-Presse definiert,
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
is really good at identifying kind of the sacred cows of, you know, the liberal or centrist and liberal establishment and like slaying them, right? Needling.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
But that has, I think that, and you can still see some of that, but in the last 20 years and certainly in the last decade, you've seen that kind of curdle into this full-throated support for something that you could, critics would argue is more illiberal and more toxic than just kind of like mischief making.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Dennis Miller on Fox. Right.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ja, es ist wie ein Organ der populistischen Rechtsentwicklung. Es macht sie sicherlich weniger interessant. Ich denke, es macht es richtig. Es hat es weniger stickig gemacht. Es macht auch die Murdoch-Familie und Rupert im Wesentlichen, denke ich, weniger mächtig, weil er so lange derjenige war, der das Wetter auf der rechten Seite gemacht hat. Und jetzt...
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
It really does feel like ever since Donald Trump arrived on the scene, at least in America, he is the one making the weather. And Rupert had to kind of make a decision about like, are we getting on board with this or not? And basically decided he was.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Es ist eine Publikumserzeugung, richtig?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und ich denke über das immer. Ich habe in den ersten Jahren meiner Karriere für Ben Smith bei BuzzFeed gearbeitet. At the time, BuzzFeed News, the whole idea was we're going to be the news outlet that speaks to the social web. And we write these stories that go viral on Twitter or Facebook or whatever.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
And Ben ended up, you know, a couple of years ago writing this book declaring the end of the social media era. And that, you know, the new media era is about, you know, cultivating these audiences and subscription models and all that stuff. Right. And I think he's right.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
But it's funny because I'm now kind of, for all the problems the social media era had in media, I'm a little nostalgic for it because we really were trying to write for as broad an audience as possible. And what's happened is now with the fragmentation of the media landscape, everybody has just been able to figure out, you know, this is my audience of, in Fox News' case, 4 million people.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
In like a Substack Writer's case, my audience is Look, I'm going about this thinking that there's still an audience out there that just sort of wants a sort of...
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Wait, can I ask you, Chuck?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
It's not a political constituency.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Yeah. Well, and that was my question. I know this is your show, but the one question I'll ask you, do you feel that poll, like the poll of the audience, like wants a certain thing from you?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Yeah. And there's a role for, you know, being the kind of Person that grounds the whatever your political constituency is, grounds it in reality, gives it facts, maybe, you know, helps them understand an intellectually honest way to make their arguments as opposed to, you know, I look at it, but I, you know, and people hate this.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
It was the weirdest thing about doing these interviews was that I remember the first few interviews I did with James and his wife Catherine was also a big part of it. I would have these experiences where they'd be telling me a story and I'd have like this weird deja vu where I'd be like, I feel like I've heard this story before. And they're like, no, we've never told this to anybody.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
And I was like, well, has it been reported? And then I would realize it was a storyline on succession. And that's why it was familiar. There is this, you alluded to this, this whole parlor game among the Murdochs about... Es ist nicht so, dass du nicht die Show liest, das bedeutet nicht, dass du nicht jede Review lesen kannst.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und jeder in seinem Leben schaut es an und will mit ihm darüber sprechen. Es ist alles da draußen. Sie glaubten, dass seine Schwester Liz zu den Schriftführern fliegt. Liz sagte Nein, aber sie glaubte, dass es ihr Ex-Husband war. Es gab dieses ganze Ding.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ich denke, am Ende des Tages, ich sollte sagen, Jesse Armstrong, ich habe endlich mit ihm gesprochen, dem Kreator des Shows, und er hat einfach gelacht darüber. Es war wie, es gibt dieses ganze Psychodrama mit den Murdochs, wo sie alle denken, dass jemand von uns fliegt. Und die Realität ist, dass wir die Dynamiken ziemlich einfach herausfinden können. Sie sind nicht die schwierigste Familie.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ja, das war eigentlich etwas, was James zu Beginn gesprochen hat, weil er das berühmte Quote von Anna Karenina hatte, dass alle glücklichen Familien gleich sind, alle unglücklichen Familien sind anders, unglücklicher in ihrer eigenen Art und Weise. Und er sagte, dass er das nicht wirklich glaubt, weil wenn er... Wenn er sich die Geschichte von Familien wie seiner anschaut, z.B.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
reiche Familien, die sich über Macht und Geld verbreiten, dann fühlt er sich, als wären sie alle ziemlich ähnlich. Und er sieht die gleichen Fähigkeiten wieder und wieder wieder, insbesondere in seiner eigenen Familie. Und er hat mir tatsächlich gesagt, I think the real tragedy here is that nobody else in my family seems to have read the history.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
What is happening to my family has happened to a thousand families before ours. And we should have all seen the warning signs and figured out how to avoid this fate.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
We don't know for sure yet, but it seems like probably not. So Rupert tried to rewrite the trust. There was a year of litigation. There was a trial last fall. The judge in December, or actually the probate commissioner, I should be careful here, the Reno, Nevada probate commissioner overseeing the fate of this multibillion dollar empire.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
decided that ruled against Rupert on basically every count, said he could not rewrite the trust, was not operating in good faith. Rupert and Laughlin have appealed that decision. And so we are now waiting and it could be months before a judge makes the final call. But all indications point to Rupert not being able to do this, which means that when he dies, unless something else changes,
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Well, I want to get to that. So those are the four children that get a piece of this.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
The two younger ones, Grace and Chloe... This is the one with Wendy, right? Yes, that's right. They get a significant share of the money, but no controlling vote in the direction of the empire. And this was actually by design. So...
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Rupert's second wife, Anna, who is the mother to James, Lachlan and Liz, actually, when they got divorced 25 years ago in 1999, she basically said, I am willing to give up a significant portion of the money that I'm entitled to here if we establish this trust together. that secures control of the empire with these four oldest children, including one from Rupert's previous marriage.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
And so if he has more kids later, they can get money, but not control of the empire. And specifically, she wanted it to be split equally because she thought, and this is kind of ironic in retrospect, that it would incentivize them all to work together, right? That it would basically prevent their lives being consumed by this succession battle.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
James und Lachlan, beide, zumindest laut James, haben sich stark gegen das Verheirat in 1999 verteidigt. Waren sie sehr skeptisch von ihr? Sie waren sehr enttäuscht von ihr. Sie waren bescheiden. Sie fühlten sich, als ob sie nicht vertraut werden könnte. Sie fühlten sich, als ob sie aus dem Nichts kam. Sie war dieses Geschäftsführer der asiatischen Satellitenfirma, die sie kündigte.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Catherine actually joked to me that Wendy had evaded a subpoena in this current litigation by using a CCP-issued burner phone. Was sie als Lüge sagt, aber ehrlich gesagt, denke ich wirklich, es bleibt viel ernsthafte Bescheid über sie und ihre Beziehungen zur chinesischen Regierung und alles andere. Ich sollte sagen, Wendy hat nicht zu meiner Anmerkung für einen Kommentar geantwortet.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Sie ist offensichtlich verurteilt, dass sie ein chinesisches Asset ist, nur um unsere Basis zu öffnen.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Sie ist ständig, es scheint so zu sein, berühmt, zumindest in Beziehungen mit verschiedenen sehr mächtigen Männern in der westlichen Welt. Ja, ja, ja.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ja, ich denke, das ist ein wichtiger Hinweis auf die Dynamik. Es ist absolut wahr, dass Rupert, die Rolle, die Rupert in seiner Kindheit gespielt hat, ist, sie gegen einander zu schlagen, für seine Aufmerksamkeit und Liebe und Aufmerksamkeit.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und ja, du könntest einen Fall machen, dass er sich von dieser Dynamik entfernen kann, dass er diese älteren Kinder jetzt etwas Raum lässt, um ihre eigenen Verhältnisse mit einander zu arbeiten. Ich denke, dass In der Falle von James, und übrigens würde ich sagen, dass ich James' Schwestern mit Lachlan verabschieden kann. Ich glaube, dass sie gerade nicht wirklich sprechen.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Die Schwestern befinden sich mit James in dieser Befugnis, aber ich könnte sie verabschieden sehen. The question is if there's just been too much damage done to the specific relationship between James and Lachlan. They tried to run the companies together in 2016, 17, 18, 19. There was a moment where Rupert said, okay, we've resolved the succession battle. They're both going to do this together.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Lachlan is chairman, James is CEO. And it was a disaster.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
I could see that and I would add that a lot of the kind of key moments of division between the two brothers when they were co-running the company had to do with Trump, right? It was Charlotte Es war die Muslim-Ban, wie diese wichtigen frühen Momente des ersten Trump-Terms, die ehrlich gesagt überall anstrengend waren, richtig?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Sie haben mehrere Thanksgiving-Debate in Wohnzimmern weltweit verursacht. Es war sehr, du weißt, es hat einen großen Wunsch zwischen den beiden gemacht. I think that there is something to be said for that.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
It's also true that like Trump's arrival caused these outlets to start to remake themselves in Trump's image in a way that, you know, James could have stomached and still honestly, I think, would be okay with Fox News being a center-right outlet, right?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
He calls himself a centrist and I think that he's where a lot of kind of wealthy centrists are. Lots of tax cuts. Yeah, exactly. And free markets are good and etc. I think that he could not stomach Fox News becoming... in the Trump era what it became, right? He also, frankly, spent a lot of his time working, when he was working in the family business, overseas. He was in Asia and Europe.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
So he felt the effect of Anti-Americanism in some ways.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
And then he came back and Fox News was like... I think he didn't realize quite how much Fox News defined the entire empire until he came back to America and realized that... He's like, we're doing all these great things in India and Hong Kong and we have this huge media apparatus in Britain and all anyone wants to talk to me is about Sean Hannity. I think that it really underscored for him how...
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ja, ich denke, dass einige davon auf dem Flur des Ausgangs kamen, aber wir haben darüber gesprochen. Er war überrascht von Roger Ailes' persönlichen Verhältnismen und er war tatsächlich zufrieden mit dem...
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
I'm just bringing that up because what he said is that what he realized once Rupert stepped in to be the interim CEO of Fox News was that Es gab einen Vorteil, dass Roger Ailes, der im Grunde ein autoritären Führer von Fox News ist, aber mit einem roten Fist über den Talent regiert hat. Und er hatte eine sehr klare Vision, was Fox News sein sollte. Es sollte Nachrichten am Tag geben.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Es sollte eine Provokation und eine Meinung am Abend geben. Aber er hat immer den Glauben behauptet, dass niemand größer ist als Fox News, richtig? Und du hattest all diese Fälle, wo er jemanden wie Glenn Beck ausdrücken würde, wenn Glenn Beck etwas zu groß für seine Brüder geworden wäre und kein Team-Spieler wäre.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und Rupert kam da rein, und er wurde einfach völlig ausgematcht von dem Talent, glaube ich. Die Hosts waren wild, sie machten, was sie wollten. And Rupert just had either no ability or no interest in trying to rein them in. And Fox News really did become much more of a kind of inmates running the asylum situation.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und das war ein wichtiger Moment, weil ich sage, ich reportiere darüber in der Reihe, als Roger Ailes verlief, gab es eine große Debatte zwischen Lachlan und James darüber, wer ihn ersetzen sollte. Und James wollte, was ist der CBS-Gericht, David Rhodes, er wollte David Rhodes, um Roger Ailes zu ersetzen und basically Fox News in eine zentral-rechte journalistische Ausstellung zu bauen, mit
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
editorial guardrails and a wall street journal yeah exactly like to be you know the wall street wall street journal on cable right right and lachlan was adamantly opposed to this they went back and forth and bickered and and fought for a while and then rupert finally stepped in and resolved it by saying i'll just be the ceo and and but you wonder What would have changed?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
If James had gotten his way, you actually could have seen a situation where... I don't think a David Rhodes-led Fox News would have been airing rigged election conspiracy theories after 2020, for example. And this is, I think, what's at stake now. If James gets his way when Rupert's gone, Fox News and other outlets that he believes are really reckless purveyors of misinformation...
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
will be turned into either dismantled and sold off or turned into real, you know, news outlets.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
There are no indications that he's nearing death.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
So there is another wife. There is a sixth wife, I think.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Yes, the only kids are with Wendy and Anna and then his first wife.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
And I mean, this is this is the big caveat when we talk about the stakes here. Like we are now in a media environment where there are so many competitors and insurgents in that space on the right that if Fox News disappeared from the planet tomorrow, I don't think anything changes. I don't know.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
I mean, certainly the media landscape would be scrambled, but I'm not sure that audience ends up in a much more responsible information ecosystem. I don't either. You do see Fox trying to position themselves for this future, right?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
They recently acquired Red Ventures, which is the podcast distributor for Megyn Kelly and a bunch of other prominent... And Fox Nation is kind of their attempt at sort of making sure that if YouTube is the future, they're going to have a significant place in it too.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und wiederum denke ich, dass das der Fall ist, den Lachlan und Rupert machen, nämlich, das ist das, worauf das Empire gebaut wurde, richtig? Das ist unser Wertspartner-Proposition. Wir können dieses Publikum nicht verlassen. Wir müssen einfach alles tun, was wir können, um dieses Publikum und die nächste Generation der Konservativen zu halten. Und James würde unsere Fähigkeit tanken, das zu tun.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Also was will James jetzt tun? So James, when he left the company in 2019 after the Disney sale, which he played a big role in negotiating the sale of the film studio.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
No, I don't think they... Well, Lachlan, I think, was always against it because he didn't like that it made the empire much smaller and less glamorous.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Wenn man sich die Anzahl erhielt, die sie erhielt, ist wild geinflatiert. Analysts werden dir jetzt sagen, dass sie auf der ganzen Höhe des Wertes verkauft haben. Weißt du, wer sie dafür bedanken müssen?
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Everybody wanted to grab our streamers.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Oh, interesting. And, you know, James, that was like his white whale forever. He wanted to buy Sky and they just couldn't get it done because, you know, the the public profile was just too toxic for News Corp and Fox. But the point is, James left that, that when he left after that sale, he got $2 billion in cash, all the siblings did. So he set himself up.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und er baut seinen eigenen kleinen Mini-Empire. Und es ist sehr Jamesy. Er hat einen Kontrollstake in Art Basel gekauft und das Tribeca Film Festival. Und er investiert in Indien wieder, wo er seine Karriere begonnen hat. Er baut seinen eigenen Portfolio. Und ich denke, er ist in Ordnung damit.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Und wenn Rupert weg ist, gibt es die Möglichkeit, dass Lachlan einfach zu James geht und sagt, lass mich dich einfach ausbauen. Es gab schon mal Versuche, aber James fühlte sich immer so, als ob er ihn aufhören würde. Es ist möglich, dass Lachlan sagt, und vielleicht sogar vor Rupert, vielleicht ist Rupert der Katalysator dafür, aber vielleicht sagt Rupert,
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Look, we tried this kind of scheme, it didn't work. Let's just go straight to him, give him exactly what he wants for his stake. And James walks away an even wealthier man with the freedom to build whatever he wants.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Nein, ich denke, sie würden ihre eigenen Entscheidungen machen, aber ich denke, dass Prudence im Wesentlichen nie einen Interesse in der Geschäftsführung gezeigt hat. Sie würde wahrscheinlich, ich spekuliere hier, aber sie wäre wahrscheinlich glücklich, wenn sie nur ihr Geld nehmen würde und nach Hause gehen würde. Liz ist mehr ein Wildcard.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Liz ist eigentlich ein sehr erfolgreicher TV- und Film-Developer in ihrem eigenen Recht. Sie hat ihre eigene Produktionenfirma. Aber... Liz, Prue and James are all embarrassed by Fox News and by kind of the more right wing elements of the company. So if they don't see a way to reforming it, I think they would want to just kind of wash their hands and walk away.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ich meine, das ist die Position, in der alle dieser Broadcast-Netzwerke sind. Wie kompetierst du mit etwas wie Amazon oder Apple, wo sie einfach... Apple muss nicht Geld verdienen auf diesem Streaming.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Billionen von Dollar auf Feuer, um sie auszubauen. Und, und, und, du weißt, dass diese großen Technologien für sie kommen. Und ich sage, das war etwas, was Rupert gesehen hat, die Linie runtergegangen ist. Und das ist Teil dessen, weshalb er die Disney-Assets verkauft hat, weil er die Assets zu Disney hat. Er hat erkannt, dass wir nicht groß genug werden, um mit den Netflixes der Welt zu kämpfen.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Es ist nicht möglich. Und so hat er basically decided, let's whittle this back down to the thing I actually care about, which is news. And maybe that ends up being the right call. It's a much smaller business, but it is more in line with what Rupert cares about.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ich habe nicht mit den Kindern von James und Catherine gesprochen. Ich habe einen von ihnen kennengelernt, aber sie sind ziemlich aufmerksam daran, ihre Kinder aus der Presse zu halten. Und ich verstehe, warum, je nachdem, was James durchgebracht hat. Aber nein, eine Sache, die James und Catherine mir gesagt haben, ist, dass sie gratifiziert sind von dem Fakt, dass sie drei Kinder haben.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Sie sind alle auf sehr unterschiedlichen Karriereweiten und sie haben Angst genommen, sie nicht in irgendeinem professionellen Weltraum hinzuzufügen, weil James fühlt sich, als hätte er einen guten Teil seines Lebens verloren, nur um in seinem Vaters Sandbox zu spielen. Und sie würden lieber, dass ihre Kinder ihre eigene Art und Weise herausfinden.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Well, another way to put it is that he likes, Rupert likes, realizes that one of the great pleasures of being a media baron is that you get to have these outlets that kind of needle the powerful, even when the powerful are on your side. And so you see the Wall Street Journal taking Trump to task over tariffs over and over again.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
I think that to answer your question, Lachlan and James are very different. Lachlan... Ist, you know, a kind of rugged outdoorsman. He's most at home in Australia. He likes being a big shot. He was for a long time in Australia, this big shot media investor. His wife was the host of Australia's next top model. They are very much in that they're swimming in those waters of just kind of.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Corporate elite world. Right. And I don't know how much he cares about news. James is actually a pretty voracious consumer of news, but it's not for the most part the kind of news that the Murdoch press creates. Right. He doesn't read, I think, the New York Post. He said even when he was running all of Europe and Asia.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
He didn't read the news of the world and kind of the downmarket tabloids because it just wasn't his speed. He reads the New York Review of Books and, you know, The Atlantic, The New Yorker. He was just texting me about the New Yorker article. I mean, he is. He's the kind of person that Greg Gutfeld makes fun of, right? Right.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
But because of that, I would argue that, and also he really liked being involved in the movie stuff and he knows Wes Anderson and stuff like that. I think that he actually has more interest in the media business than Lachlan in some ways, but it's part of the reason that he has a very different vision than his brother and father, for what the outlets should be.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ich habe vor sechs Jahren eine Cover-Story für The Atlantic geschrieben über die Trump-Familie und die Art von Kampf zwischen Ivanka und Don Junior. An dieser Zeit war das eine Art von definierender Beef about who would be kind of the heir to the, you know, the Trump Empire.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
And the interesting thing with them is that Trump for a long time and still to some extent prefers Ivanka as the face of his family because he always kind of wanted to be on the inside. He wanted the kind of Manhattan elite crowd to accept him. But Don Jr. was the one who actually went to where Trump's real base is and understands them better. And you can sense the kind of way that
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Trump resenzt Don Junior für das, weil er auf irgendeinem Niveau, ich denke, er schaut in das Fenster mit seinem Sohn und sieht sich selbst und mag nicht, was er sieht. Aber der Fakt, dass Don Junior mehr erfolgreich ist als Ivanka in diesem Welt.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
I think that's probably right. Maybe that's the book. Maybe I end up writing the succession drama of that. It's somehow even more unseemly than the Murdoch one.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ich denke, das letzte, was ich über das sage, ist, dass es mich an die Murdoch-Dynamik erinnert. The more successful James became, the more Rupert was threatened by him and alienated by him. And it actually drove, you know, James thought the way to win his dad's approval was to succeed at the company his dad owned. That seems like a pretty rational idea.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
But the more successful he became, the more power he accumulated, the more wins he notched, the more Rupert kind of resented him. Und ich könnte sehr leicht eine ähnliche Dynamik mit Junior und Trump aussehen.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Zwischen den beiden 15, 16, etwas so. Und Lachlan? Lachlan würde nicht sprechen, Rupert würde nicht sprechen. Ich habe mit Liz gesprochen. Sie war auch in manchen Fällen fast mehr hilfreich, weil sie die Dynamik von außen ein bisschen objektiv gesehen haben konnte.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
Ich danke dir für all deine Unterstützung. Du warst die erste Person, die mich auf der Bühne interviewt hat über das Romney-Buch im Jahr 2023. Es hat die Buch-Tour ausgelöst und es hat wirklich eine Unterschiede gemacht.
The Chuck ToddCast
Trump's Tariff Changes + Predicting Future of Fox News & The Murdoch Empire
On to the next story, but always searching for a confessional, influential person who wants to bear their soul to me. So if anyone listening wants to talk, you can find me.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Nukes Himself with His Own Psycho Behavior
How soon do you want the Department of Education to be closed?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Nukes Himself with His Own Psycho Behavior
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The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Nukes Himself with His Own Psycho Behavior
He's gonna put his booger fingers on the presidential desk.