Last Monday, on his 54th birthday, Lachlan Murdoch received a gift he had been waiting decades for: official confirmation of his victory over his siblings especially James in the fight to determine who will succeed their father, Rupert Murdoch, perhaps the most powerful man in the media world and one of the most influential figures in U.S. politics.
At the same time a long-running family feud among Rupert Murdoch and his children was settled with a deal that will assure Fox News and other powerful media outlets run by the family will retain their conservative bent. The moves deepened concerns among many US media critics and observers of authoritarianism that press freedoms in the US were undergoing capitulation to the Trump administration's rightwing authoritarian leanings.