<p>Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch on Friday dropped a high-profile defamation case against an Australian website that accused his family's conservative media empire of fuelling the 2021 US Capitol riots.</p>.<p>Lawyers for the Crikey website said that Murdoch, the eldest son of billionaire Rupert Murdoch, had abruptly "discontinued his defamation case" eight months into legal proceedings.</p>.<p>Lachlan Murdoch sued Crikey for a series of articles that labelled Murdoch's family and "poisonous" <em>Fox News</em> commentators as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the January 6 post-US-election riots.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/lawyers-win-big-in-7875-million-fox-defamation-case-1211439.html" target="_blank">Lawyers win big in $787.5-million Fox defamation case</a></strong></p>.<p>The articles referenced <em>Fox News's</em> decision to amplify unfounded conspiracy theories that the presidential election, won by Joe Biden, was stolen from the then-incumbent Donald Trump.</p>.<p>Murdoch, with the support of a high-powered legal team, had widely been expected to win the case and saddle the small independent publisher with ruinous legal costs.</p>.<p>His abrupt decision to drop the lawsuit came just days after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to US firm Dominion for falsely claiming their election voting machines were rigged.</p>.<p>Crikey had sought to introduce evidence relating to the Dominion case to help its defence, a potentially problematic development for Murdoch.</p>.<p>The US case was both costly and deeply embarrassing for Fox, exposing internal messages that showed the network knew fraud claims by Trump and his surrogates were untrue.</p>.<p>The Dominion case was settled before trial, and before any of the Murdoch family or Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson were forced to testify in open court.</p>.<p><em>Fox News</em> still faces a separate $2.7 billion lawsuit from another electronic voting company -- Smartmatic -- which claims that the right-wing network broadcast lies that "decimated" its business prospects.</p>.<p>Murdoch's Australian lawyers on Friday insisted there was "no truth" to Crikey's allegations, but said 92-year-old Rupert's heir apparent had decided to drop the case anyway.</p>.<p>"(Lachlan) Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favour," lawyer John Churchill said.</p>.<p>"However, he does not wish to further enable Crikey's use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers."</p>.<p>Crikey, an often pugilistic left-leaning news site, had repeatedly dared Murdoch to sue them over the articles, and launched fundraising and subscription drives off the back of the legal action.</p>.<p>Crikey, and its parent company Private Media, appeared to have been blindsided by the case's abrupt end.</p>.<p>"We won. Thank you to all of @crikey_news team, our wider staff, our legal team at @marquelawyers, all our subs and everyone who contributed to the campaign," Private Media CEO Will Hayward tweeted.</p>.<p>His lawyers said Crikey would seek to recoup legal costs.</p>.<p>The Murdoch family remains a major media player in Rupert's native Australia, despite his decades-old focus on global expansion into the United States and Britain.</p>
<p>Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch on Friday dropped a high-profile defamation case against an Australian website that accused his family's conservative media empire of fuelling the 2021 US Capitol riots.</p>.<p>Lawyers for the Crikey website said that Murdoch, the eldest son of billionaire Rupert Murdoch, had abruptly "discontinued his defamation case" eight months into legal proceedings.</p>.<p>Lachlan Murdoch sued Crikey for a series of articles that labelled Murdoch's family and "poisonous" <em>Fox News</em> commentators as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the January 6 post-US-election riots.</p>.<p><strong>Also Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/international/world-news-politics/lawyers-win-big-in-7875-million-fox-defamation-case-1211439.html" target="_blank">Lawyers win big in $787.5-million Fox defamation case</a></strong></p>.<p>The articles referenced <em>Fox News's</em> decision to amplify unfounded conspiracy theories that the presidential election, won by Joe Biden, was stolen from the then-incumbent Donald Trump.</p>.<p>Murdoch, with the support of a high-powered legal team, had widely been expected to win the case and saddle the small independent publisher with ruinous legal costs.</p>.<p>His abrupt decision to drop the lawsuit came just days after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to US firm Dominion for falsely claiming their election voting machines were rigged.</p>.<p>Crikey had sought to introduce evidence relating to the Dominion case to help its defence, a potentially problematic development for Murdoch.</p>.<p>The US case was both costly and deeply embarrassing for Fox, exposing internal messages that showed the network knew fraud claims by Trump and his surrogates were untrue.</p>.<p>The Dominion case was settled before trial, and before any of the Murdoch family or Fox hosts Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson were forced to testify in open court.</p>.<p><em>Fox News</em> still faces a separate $2.7 billion lawsuit from another electronic voting company -- Smartmatic -- which claims that the right-wing network broadcast lies that "decimated" its business prospects.</p>.<p>Murdoch's Australian lawyers on Friday insisted there was "no truth" to Crikey's allegations, but said 92-year-old Rupert's heir apparent had decided to drop the case anyway.</p>.<p>"(Lachlan) Murdoch remains confident that the court would ultimately find in his favour," lawyer John Churchill said.</p>.<p>"However, he does not wish to further enable Crikey's use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers."</p>.<p>Crikey, an often pugilistic left-leaning news site, had repeatedly dared Murdoch to sue them over the articles, and launched fundraising and subscription drives off the back of the legal action.</p>.<p>Crikey, and its parent company Private Media, appeared to have been blindsided by the case's abrupt end.</p>.<p>"We won. Thank you to all of @crikey_news team, our wider staff, our legal team at @marquelawyers, all our subs and everyone who contributed to the campaign," Private Media CEO Will Hayward tweeted.</p>.<p>His lawyers said Crikey would seek to recoup legal costs.</p>.<p>The Murdoch family remains a major media player in Rupert's native Australia, despite his decades-old focus on global expansion into the United States and Britain.</p>