James Murdoch has stepped down from the board of directors of News Corp, announcing his resignation in a letter on Friday.
Following Murdoch's resignation, the board of directors will include ten people, headed by James Murdoch's father, Rupert Murdoch, and Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest heir of family.
"My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions", the letter read.
Murdoch's spokesperson, cited by CNN, said that there would be no additional comment, as the letter "spoke for itself".
Here's James Murdoch's resignation letter from News Corp. A spox for him says there will be no further comment and that the letter speaks for itself. pic.twitter.com/hblNMubbQG
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 31, 2020
According to BBC, the younger Murdoch previously denounced the company's outlets for their coverage of climate change, especially those based in Australia.
In January, a spokesperson for James Murdoch told The Daily Beast that the scion and his wife were "particularly disappointed with the ongoing denial among the news outlets in Australia given obvious evidence to the contrary", reportedly referring to wildfires raging in Australia in early 2020. The fires were the worst the country has seen in decades, and have caused widespread drought and devastation, impacting over 7.3 million hectares.
The January report by The Daily Beast cited the spokesperson for the younger Murdoch as saying "Kathryn and James’ views on climate are well established and their frustration with some of the News Corp and Fox coverage of the topic is also well known". The report cited several Australian News Corp. outlets, such as The Herald, The Australian and Fox News, all of which had dismissed the connection between wildfires and climate change.
News Corp., formed as a spin-off of the News Corporation, was founded by media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Behind the corporation are news outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The Sun, The Times and the New York Post, along with The Herald, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph. Murdoch family also owns Fox Corp., the parent company of Fox News.
