Rupert Murdoch announced Thursday that he will step down as chairman of Fox Corporation and News Corp.
via: ABC News
“On behalf of the FOX and News Corp boards of directors, leadership teams, and all the shareholders who have benefited from his hard work, I congratulate my father on his remarkable 70-year career,” Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement on Thursday.
“We thank him for his vision, his pioneering spirit, his steadfast determination, and the enduring legacy he leaves to the companies he founded and countless people he has impacted,” the statement added.
Rupert Murdoch, an Australian-born media magnate, worked in the industry for nearly seven decades, according to the statement from News Corp. The global company owns an array of media properties, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and HarperCollins Publishers.
He will be appointed chairman emeritus when the move is made official in November.
Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, has faced a series of public controversies in recent months.
In April, Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems alleging defamation centered on the broadcaster’s coverage of the 2020 election.
Days later, Fox News parted ways with host Tucker Carlson, who at the time was the nation’s most-watched prime-time cable news host.
In deposition for the trial, in January, Murdoch had rejected the baseless theories about the 2020 election being stolen that hosts had shared on air. “I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight,” he said.
