Stay updated with breaking news from Lachlan mckinnon. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
james murdoch is now the clear heir. but a scandal is right around the corner, and james' good fortune is about to be threatened. >> james murdoch is now at the top of the company, almost certain to succeed his father. >> and he's in the midst of trying to buy bskyb, the british broadcaster, when the hacking scandal breaks. outrage in britain is one used of hacking the phone messages of public figures. thousands of victims. >> the murdochs are going to need every bit of help they can get to outrun the scandal and get this deal done. >> who was going to succeed rupert murdoch? >> lachlan, elizabeth, and james
blow up, and blow up this huge amount of pressure, and then suddenly the whole thing blows and now the future looks very different. >> it is like a stick of dynamite that has exploded inside the family. >> elizabeth has been watching this from the sidelines, she's fuming because in her mind everything she built is now on the line. she has just recently sold her life's work, shine, to the family company, and now all of that is under threat because of how this was mismanaged. >> liz basically tells rupert, "you need to fire james and you need to replace him with me." >> elizabeth denied this, but according to our reporting then something extraordinary happens. james's wife kathryn reaches out to anna murdoch, within ten years after her divorce from rupert, and she asks her to step in and reverse the course. and at the same time lachlan was urging his father to not do anything rash, just stand by james in this moment.
all have their own places in the murdoch empire. lachlan is the one who is closest to the seat of power. >> but he finds himself in the middle of this shark tank. >> he chastises roger ailes. rupert completely sides with ailes. elizabeth, as a programmer, has something close to rupert murdoch's own eye for the new and the fresh, but she's never going to get the top job with her father. she decides she has to get out. she sends him a fax. >> they're supposed to have an heir and a spare. james is the spare. >> but james proves himself to be as good as his father at putting profit before principle. and it's very successful .
bit of a sexist. >> at the same time, people have always said to me that rupert sees elizabeth as the child most like him. >> when people would say to him that he favors the oldest son, lachlan, murdoch would say, "oh, i love all my children." >> tell us the best thing about your day. >> let's see. well, he always likes to go camping with us. >> does he spend a lot of time with you? >> yes. >> rupert and lachlan both share a love of newspapers. they both share a love of australia. >> when they were teenagers, you know, rupert would send them out for work experience. lachlan loved it. he loved going to the new york
post building and watching the presses roll. >> lachlan really takes to it. he's in his element. this is the world he wants to be in. james not so much. >> this is my son james. >> james, how would you describe your dad? >> well, i think the papers and the shows about him and stuff make him look like too mean and dark and sinister. and really, he's a really nice person, a fun person. >> sometimes, right? >> yeah. >> when you behave. >> so rupert sends james to have an internship at the daily mirror in the photography department. james is only 15. >> and there's a famous occasion in which is in a news conference in sydney. >> as james has told this story himself, he had spent several nights in a row on the overnight photo desk. he was exhausted. so he sat down on the couch.
>> james murdoch is now at the top of the company, is almost certain to succeed his father, and he's doing tremendously. he goes from a junior member of the family to a successful executive at newscorp, to the ceo of sky, to now being in charge of news international, their global division. >> lachlan has at that point, gone off to australia, or he's doing his own thing. he's basically left the family business. liz at that time is off doing her open thing as well. so james is the one working for the family, doing the hard work, flying around the world. >> he has built the empire overseas. he has now settled in london with his family. and he's in the midst of a big move. >> newscorp is in the process of trying to acquire bskyb. that's a paid tv broadcaster serving the uk and ireland.
>> when did you last call your dad? >> two days ago. >> rupert murdoch's two sons back on his coattails. >> everyone is happy, everything is good. >> it's family and we're doing great together. >> but things had sort of gone sideways. >> profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster. >> liz is differentiating herself from the murdoch family. >> james is basically ambushed. >> lachlan says that james will be working for him. >> willpower is everything. >> james has no question that lachlan will burn out. >> yes, you have met some of my family before.
who was going to succeed rupert murdoch? >> lachlan, elizabeth, and james all have their own places in the murdoch empire. lachlan is the one who is closest to the seat of power. >> but he finds himself in the middle of this shark tank. >> he chastises roger ailes. rupert completely sides with ailes. elizabeth, as a programmer, has something close to rupert murdoch's own eye for the new and the fresh, but she's never going to get the top job with her father. she decides she has to get out. she sends him a fax. >> they're supposed to have an heir and a spare. james is the spare. >> but james proves himself to be as good as his father at putting profit before principle. and it's very successful .
>> when did you last call your dad? >> two days ago. >> rupert murdoch's two sons back on his coattails. >> everyone is happy, everything is good. >> it's family and we're doing great together. >> but things had sort of gone sideways. >> profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster. >> liz is differentiating herself from the murdoch family. >> james is basically ambushed. >> lachlan says that james will be working for him. >> willpower is everything. >> james has no question that lachlan will burn out. >> yes, you have met some of my family before.
to anna murdoch, within ten years after her divorce from rupert, and she asks her to step in and reverse the course. and at the same time lachlan was urging his father to not do anything rash, just stand by james in this moment. he comes in from australia, he's tanned and rested, and rupert is immediately put at ease, his boy is back. rupert stands down. for the time being, james survives. >> the murdoch family have closed their flagship sunday newspaper, abandoned their bid for bskyb, yet the political and commercial fallout from this scandal is nowhere near done. >> and for rupert if all of this wasn't bad enough, he can't even protect the one person he did seem to try to protect, and that's rebekah brooks. >> rebekah brooks, chief