Succession battle: Murdoch loses court fight to change family trust

A court has ruled against Rupert Murdoch's effort to change his family's trust to give one of his sons control of his media empire and ensure Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant, according to a sealed document obtained by The New York Times.

In a decision filed on Saturday, a probate commissioner in Nevada concluded that Murdoch, 93, and his son, Lachlan Murdoch, had acted in "bad faith" in their efforts to amend the irrevocable trust, The New York Times has reported.

The trust divides control of the company equally among four of Rupert Murdoch's children - Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan and James - after he dies. Oldest son Lachlan has been the head of Fox News and News Corp since late last year, when his father stepped down.

The elder Murdoch had argued that, to preserve his businesses' commercial value for all his heirs, the trust needed to be changed to allow Lachlan Murdoch to maintain Fox News' conservative bent. James and Elisabeth Murdoch are both known to have less-conservative political views than their father or brother, potentially complicating efforts to ensure that Fox News remains conservative.

In his 96-page opinion, Nevada Probate Commissioner Edmund J. Gorman Jr. of the Second Judicial District Court characterised the plan to change the trust as a "carefully crafted charade" to "permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch's executive roles" inside the empire "regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries" of the family trust.

Adam Streisand, a lawyer for Rupert Murdoch, told the newspaper that his client and his client's son were disappointed with the ruling and intended to appeal.

A spokesperson for Prudence, Elisabeth and James Murdoch said in an emailed