Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan ends Australian defamation suit

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation lawsuit against Australian news website Crikey. The announcement Friday cited the U.S. settlement in which Fox News agreed to pay almost $800 million over its lies involving the 2020 U.S. election. Rupert Murdoch’s son filed the Crikey suit last year after executives at Crikey’s publisher put out a newspaper ad inviting him to sue. Murdoch claimed he was defamed by a Crikey column about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building under the headlines: “Trump is a confirmed unhinged traitor. And Murdoch is his unindicted co-conspirator.” A statement from Lachlan Murdoch’s lawyer said he didn’t want the Crikey case to be used to litigate a case already settled elsewhere.