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Who gets control of Fox News is still being litigated.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch would prefer that his oldest son Lachlan, 52, who shares his conservative values, be left with control of Fox News and News Corp. However, a recent court ruling and some family in-fighting could leave the news empire in the hands of Murdoch's left-leaning children.
All four of Murdoch's adult children will retain equal voting power over their father's empire once he passes. This after a Nevada court last year ruled that Murdoch could not change his family trust to his oldest son Lachlan, who seems to be the odd man out of the family. Liberal son James looks to be in a much better position to head the company if the ruling from the Nevada judge holds.
The other three children have vowed to radically change the network. Jeff McCall, a media studies professor at Depauw University, said this means Fox News may sway towards the middle or even become more of a liberal voice in the media world.
"It's clear that three of the Murdoch kids who will soon have controlling interest of Fox News are more leftist-leaning than Rupert Murdoch himself was," said McCall. "The key here in this whole question is whether any new leadership of Fox News likes revenue likes revenue or not."
The Fox News Channel is a huge money maker for the corporation, returning over $1 billion in profit per year. It's also the leading mainstream media outlet that's conservative-leaning.
"It would be very unwise for a new controlling interest to come into that and mess with that formula, whether you're a left-leaning person or a moderate person," McCall said.
Of course, Fox News has a larger right-leaning reputation, but it also plays a role in the overall media landscape. McCall said it would be a risky chance to switch up how Fox News currently operates.
"It expands the news agenda and provides perspectives that are not found in the mainstream establishment media, but Fox News does actually have pretty good journalism," he said.
The channel does get usually get defined by their more opiniated anchors like Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham in the evenings, but Bret Baier and Martha McCallum also have good daytime programs. Drastic changes to Fox News operations and programming could make it hard for loyal watchers and listeners to stick around.
"The loyal Fox News viewers would notice any change very quickly because the content would suddenly look like CNN, MSNBC or CBS that Fox News viewers generally stay away from," McCall said.
McCall believes those leaving Fox News could end up at outlets like Newsmax or would stop watching news on TV altogether.
Left-leaning media is already available in so many other places that it wouldn't make too much sense for the Murdoch family to go down that route and away from being the leading conservative voice among U.S. media.
"The one thing I would say to the Murdoch family who might change direction is keep in mind that the lanes are pretty well filled already with left-leaning journalism," McCall added. "You've got the New York Times, CBS, ABC, so if they think they're going to make Fox News more moderate or left-leaning and be able to find a market or an audience, I think they're sadly mistaken."