For years, Rupert Murdoch seemed content to let his children battle it out for control of his conservative media empire once he’s gone.Jim Rutenberg, who writes about media and politics for The Times, discusses how a secret change to that plan by Mr. Murdoch touched off an ugly family squabble that could influence how much of the world sees the news.
Guest: ... Show More
Today
For Mother’s Day, Classic Mom-isms
For Mother’s Day, we asked you about your “Mom mantras”: the oft-repeated mottos or go-to expressions that your moms have said over the years. In partnership with the Well desk, we received thousands of submissions, full of sayings that ranged from wise to funny to profound. In t ... Show More
29m 59s
Feb 2025
How the Right Took Over the Media
Ben Smith, former media columnist at the New York Times and now the editor-in-chief of Semafor, joins Dan to talk about today's ultra-challenging news media landscape. The industry is significantly weaker than it was in 2016, and Trump's aggressive lawsuits have the executives in ... Show More
1h 8m
Apr 2023
Has Fox News learned a $787 million lesson?
Fox News, accused of repeatedly and knowingly spreading lies about Dominion Voting Systems, opted Tuesday to fork over $787 million rather than find out what its correspondents had to say under oath in a court of law. Vox’s Peter Kafka talks to NPR's David Folkenflik about what, ... Show More
30m 39s
Sep 2025
When the son comes up: the Murdoch succession battle
A high-stakes tussle about who will take over Fox and News Corp from Rupert Murdoch has concluded; Lachlan, his eldest son, came out on top. Will the new boss be the same as the old boss? Our correspondent looks at kush, a synthetic opioid tearing through west Africa. And a look ... Show More
24m 58s
Jan 2024
Christopher R. Martin, "No Longer Newsworthy: How the Mainstream Media Abandoned the Working Class" (Cornell UP, 2019)
Until the recent political shift pushed workers back into the media spotlight, the mainstream media had largely ignored this significant part of American society in favor of the moneyed upscale consumer for more than four decades. Christopher R. Martin now reveals why and how the ... Show More
47m 24s
Sep 2025
When the son comes up: the Murdoch succession battle
A high-stakes tussle about who will take over Fox and News Corp from Rupert Murdoch has concluded; Lachlan, his eldest son, came out on top. Will the new boss be the same as the old boss? Our correspondent looks at kush, a synthetic opioid tearing through west Africa. And a look ... Show More
24m 58s
Sep 2025
Rupert Murdoch presents: Succession
Murdoch has built a media empire that leads all the way to the White House. But nothing lasts forever. And at age 94, he finally has an official successor. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen and Denise Guerra, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, en ... Show More
26m 25s