
Individuals who have resources on this scale change the dynamics of the societies in which they live, as the US increasingly dramatises. Their spending pulls economies out of kilter so that too much production is directed towards opulent, useless baubles, but, more dangerously, it spills over into buying political influence - directly in the political process and indirectly via media ownership. Unconstrained, the impact can only grow in the decades ahead, a phenomenon of which the dynastic founders are well aware, even if the wider public is not.
A dynastic courtroom drama to unfold next month in Reno, Nevada - hitherto secret but exposed by the New York Times last week - will further shine light on the new realities. Rupert Murdoch, the 31st richest billionaire in the US, and controller of a vast media empire that ranges from Fox News in the US, the Times and the Sun in Britain, to the Australian, is petitioning to change the terms of an irrevocable trust. It currently determines that after his death his four eldest children will have equal voting rights in the strategic and editorial control of his empire. The court hearing is his effort to change the trust and instead confer control on the child he considers most reliably rightwing, his son Lachlan.
This story is from the August 02, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 02, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In

Bring it on home Led Zep's first biopic
How were the famously interview-shy rock gods persuaded to take part in a film about their early success with the band telling their own story?

Dead souls
The Nobel laureate bears witness to Korea's traumatic past as one woman's quest is told through haunting, harrowing imagery
Object lesson
An expat couple curate their lives by plants anc Radiohead LPs in this deliciously pessimistic chronicle of Berlin life

Legacy of violence
A seething and erudite-but flawedindictment of the west's role in the creation of Israel and everything that has flowed from it

The right are wrong on climate-why is the UK following their lead?
If you care about the world we are handing on to future generations, the news last Thursday morning was dramatic.

Power pointe
Ballet has always been more than just a job for Carlos Acosta. And as director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, he is trying to make it bigger than ever
Borders can't contain the devastating, destabilising crisis engulfing Sudan
As Sudan approaches its third year of civil war, the dynamics are shifting.

Heroes to villains
With 13 Oscar nominations, Emilia Pérez's cast and crew should have been flying high. Then came a social media scandal and a fearsome backlash

Bukele's rise Strongman who became the darling of the right
Five hours after being shot in the belly, a Haitian accountant sat in a Port-au-Prince emergency room pondering how his homeland might be saved.

Trump is fuelling lethal fantasies of driving people from their land
The shock and awe continues and it only gets more shocking and more awful.