When Rupert Murdoch’s family make public statements it’s tempting to read them as actual messages to the public – but the Murdochs don’t work that way.

You can almost feel the clenched teeth in the terse response from Rupert and Lachlan not filed with the SEC thanking James for his many years of service … we wish him the very best in his future endeavours.
Much has been made of James public criticism of News Corps coverage of climate change, particularly in Australia during the bushfire season.
However, its the coverage of COVID-19, the US election and Boris Johnson in the UK that are more likely flashpoints (interestingly, while James donated $US615,000 to a Joe Biden fund in June, his stepmother Jerry Hall donated $US500 to Biden the month before).
Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch are more aligned when it comes to politics. Bloomberg
Two things are worth noting. First, while UK media is trumpeting this as Lachlans final victory over James in the Murdoch succession, its arguably more the ascendancy of the fruitcake faction at News.
Lachlans conservative politics are a legacy of his Australian years.
When Lachlan first moved to New York from Sydney in 1999 he appointed John Hartigan a newspaper editor with no corporate experience as Australian CEO of News. If Lachlan failed in the US, Harto posed no barrier to him retreating to run Australia once more.
After Lachlan abruptly exited News in 2005 and retreated to brood back in Sydney, Rupert kept Harto as a place-holder for the day Lachlan returned to the fold.
For more than a decade, News Corp Australia became virtually unmanageable, a collection of fiefdoms where editors and commentators were untouchable, answering directly to Rupert.
The curious siege mentality of News Australia fostered in some commentators an eccentric right-wing bias that makes The Wall Street Journals editorial writers look like liberals a formative influence during Lachlans nine years of self-imposed exile here.
While News Australia was making Lachlan more conservative than his father, in the UK, James was pushed the other way, in the Cool Britannia vibe of Tony Blairs Labour government.
Lachlans brand of conservatism will be the guiding force for both News and Fox Corporation as long as Rupert is still alive. But what happens with the succession?
That will depend on the changing relationships between Ruperts four eldest children, who together will control the family trusts which in turn control Fox and News.
Traditionally, Lachlan has been close to Prudence, the eldest, while James and Elisabeth were close until the UK hacking scandal forced a break, with Elisabeth reportedly despairing that James has f—ed the company.
Elisabeth encouraged James to work on his public profile, to set up a philanthropic foundation, as he has, and to pursue social concerns which went beyond his obsession with the bottom line.
And James has remade himself. Sort of. When it comes to the future of the family trust and who controls the media empire James most important relationships are with his two sisters.
Maybe his resignation letter was aimed at a more limited audience. Maybe it was a message to Elisabeth.