James Murdoch Escaped His Father’s Empire. Now He’s Building His Own.

In early 2025, as Donald Trump’s second term began, Pete Buttigieg met with two members of conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s family. The former and likely future presidential candidate had earned the nickname “Slayer Pete” for his virtuosic runs through the Fox News gauntlet, the Murdoch-controlled cable network that helped shape a generation of the American Right. This time, however, Buttigieg was meeting the Murdochs not as adversaries but as potential allies. James Murdoch, a former News Corp. and 21st Century Fox executive now estranged from his father, Rupert, and the empire he built, was about to spend some of...