Rupert Murdoch put his son Lachlan in charge of Fox. It was a dangerous mistake.
“Critics sometimes compare Fox, in its loyalty to Trump, to ‘state TV,’ but that description is off,” contends media columnist Ben Smith. “State TV implies command and control. The most-watched news channel in America has become, since the fall of its powerful founder, Roger Ailes, much more like the Trump White House: a family business where it’s not entirely clear who is in charge… Since the powerful Mr. Ailes was ousted amid a sexual harassment scandal in 2016, the network seems more and more like an asylum in the firm control of its inmates.”