Thread by @jimrutenberg

NEW: @jonathanmahler and I went deep on the Murdoch empire. We visited 3 continents and interviewed more than 150 people. This is the inside story of one dysfunctional family and the most powerful media company in the world. nyti.ms/2IePqTo

In recent years, the Murdochs have been at the red-hot center of the right-wing populist movement that has destabilized democracies across the English-speaking world. The future of their empire rested on a succession fight between Rupert Murdoch's two sons James and Lachlan.

Lachlan and James Murdoch have competed all of their lives to take over the company. But, with different politics -- James is more centrist; Lachlan more conservative -- they also were pushing it in different directions.

The different politics between the Murdoch sons played out in interesting ways

After Ailes's exit James Murdoch hoped to make Fox News more moderate and sought to bring in a more traditional news executive to run it. He had David Rhodes of CBS in mind; Lachlan and Rupert didn’t go along, saw no reason to change a huge profit engine nyti.ms/2IePqTo

Hoping to maybe convince her father-in-law to lean Clinton or at least stay neutral in 16, James's wife Kathryn, a former Clinton Global Initiative exec, tried to arrange a meeting between the two…

Murdoch actually reached out to Clinton himself, we're told, just called up campaign, had a conversation with Clinton but nothing came of it, presumably it was a meeting she believed she couldn’t afford to take politically nyti.ms/2IePqTo

James and Lachlan Murdoch disagreed on how to address the staff after President Trump’s first attempt at a travel ban. James wanted to be more forceful; Lachlan didn’t want it to be too overtly political. nyti.ms/2IePqTo

Lachlan emerged as the successor, running the company after the family sold much of 21st Century Fox to Disney; James has told friends that the smaller company Lachlan is now running is effectively “an American political project.”

In Australia, Lachlan has mixed it up with politicians and politics the way his father has, and is known to be more conservative than his father

Lachlan Murdoch is said to believe “Fox Nation” can find global appeal, hopes to grow Fox Corp bigger from here; James is striking out on his own. He and his wife Kathryn are moving to invest in programs to combat global illiberalism and authoritarianism nyti.ms/2IePqTo

James, we report, tried to get his brother to buy him and his sisters out of Fox Corp, papers were drawn up, but Lachlan ultimately balked.

"Succession" is Real
nytimes.com/interactive/20…