Lachlan Murdoch Pays $800,000 To Aussie Publisher

Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corp.’s chief executive, paid substantial legal fees to Private Media, which publishes the scrappy Australia-based news outlet Crikey, after abandoning his defamation lawsuit against the outlet, Liam Reilly reported for CNN.

Crikey's open letter to Lachlan Murdoch. I Photo: Crikey Twitter/X

Murdoch’s lawyer, John Churchill, said that Murdoch had paid.

So, $1,306,739 Australian (US$839,207.39) to cover Private Media’s legal costs, more than the $1.1 million Australian (US$705,000) that had been sought by the outlet. The payout comes more than a year after Crikey published a June 29, 2022, article that called Murdoch an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

The story, which doesn’t explicitly name Lachlan Murdoch, was removed the following day after Crikey received a legal threat from the Fox Corp. chief but was reposted.

Murdoch alleged the article was both defamatory and levied several false accusations, including that he had conspired with former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 presidential election by “inciting an armed mob to march on the Capitol to physically prevent the confirmation” of election results, court documents show.

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