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Michael Wolff’s highly anticipated book about the rise and fall of Fox News and its Murdoch family heirs will be released only a week after Rupert Murdoch announced that he will step down as the chairman of Fox and News Corp.
“The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty” peers inside what we now know are Murdoch’s final days at the head of the cable news giant. To be released Sept. 26, the book documents a particularly challenging stretch for Murdoch’s Fox News, buffeted by interpersonal drama and lawsuits by election-technology companies Dominion and Smartmatic. (The former suit was settled for some $787.5 million.)
In an interview with Variety, Wolff said his book might’ve played a role in Murdoch’s announcement. “Inside, they’ve been seeing the book as a bus aimed directly at him, and in order to avoid a direct hit, they acted first,” Wolff said. “I think that that is partly true. The book is pretty rough on the nature of what it’s like when a 92-year-old runs two public companies.”
He added that Fox might be looking to protect Murdoch from having to testify in the Smartmatic case, but said, “I don’t think it’ll work, he’ll be forced to testify anyway.”
Wolff is best known for his damning exposé on Donald Trump, “Fire and Fury,” in which the 70-year-old journalist used his extraordinary access to the West Wing to reveal what happened behind the scenes in the first nine months of Trump’s presidency.
Pre-order Wolff’s “The Fall” below:
