Lachlan Murdoch

Thursday

Clare McHugh

Inside the Murdoch family fallout

Terrific scripts, marvelous acting and glamorous locales – plus that haunting theme song – made HBO’s Succession superlative television. The show also took the sheen off being a billionaire. Who among us, watching Logan Roy (a barely veiled stand-in for media mogul Rupert Murdoch) mess with his children’s psyches, didn’t think “Isn’t it perilous to be quite so loaded?” Journalist Gabriel Sherman’s new book prompts a similar, aversive recoil. Every family has squabbles, but the Murdochs have fallen out with shocking animosity. Though it’s hyperbolic to claim, as the author does, that the struggle for control of News Corp broke the world, his gruesomely detailed account reveals how shattering the battles have been to those who fought them.

Sunday

Alexandra Williams

Why does the ‘c’-word upset Americans so much?

Recently I dined with an old American friend at my home in Sydney. He brought up the sacking of the Fox News host Tucker Carlson, reportedly for, among other things, using a terrible curse word, which my friend referred to coyly as "C U Next Tuesday." I was baffled for a minute.  “Do you mean ‘c—’?” I asked. “Oh, don’t say that!” “C—, c—, c—!” I cried. He cringed as if being assaulted physically.  Fresh from the news about Carlson, the New York Post reported that ESPN fired journalist Marly Rivera for using the word against a female colleague trying to muscle in on her interview with Yankee player Aaron Judge.  Why does it upset Americans so much?

‘c’-word

Tuesday

Cockburn

Where does Tucker Carlson go from here?

Fox News stunned its viewers — and, according to sources within the company, its own staff — when it let go of primetime host Tucker Carlson on Monday. Fox News employees were said to be "shocked" and "upset" when they read the public press release announcing Tucker's departure from the network. "FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways," read the muted release. "We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor." Speculation as to the reasons behind Tucker's abrupt exit has run rampant. The initial online consensus was that Tucker was out due to his being named prominently in Dominion's defamation lawsuit against Fox — but that doesn't explain why Maria Bartiromo and Judge Jeanine Pirro are still on the air.

tucker carlson