Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melbert. And our top story tonight is pretty interesting, we think.

It's not directly about politics or directly about the economy, although it touches on both of

those spheres and a lot more. It is a succession battle fit for TV because it is about TV and also

involves the HBO show on TV about Fox News on TV,

but everything you're about to hear is essentially true and real. It also involves a new

big blow or loss for mogul Rupert Murdoch. He is the patriarch, patriarch of the conservative

empire that you are familiar with in some form or another. You've heard of Fox News, their sister publication of Wall Street Journal, and a lot of other

valuable media properties.

Well, he has been fighting in a battle that literally is the show title about him and his family,

although it's a fictional show based on them.

You may recall it was called Success succession, and he has just lost his

bid to alter a family trust over his succession. The New York Times obtained some of these

secret or sealed court documents. Murdoch is 93, and while no one is wishing ill on anyone or

predicting how long anyone could live, he could be around in this role for a very

long time. But succession planning is about what happens when, like everyone else, he ultimately

dies. So he was attempting with an eye on whenever that event would occur to give more control

to his eldest son, Lachlan. And what we're learning from the Times reporting on the documents

is that

this was not just some issue of family favorites. It has to do with the politics I mentioned earlier,

and he thinks Lachlan is the one who could, quote, lock in Fox News's right-wing editorial slant for years to come,

presumably for years after his death whenever it occurs. So Murdoch wanted to

favor the person who he thought would ideologically carry on his global right-wing agenda,

...