Nope. Though the network did revamp its HR operation, it steamed ahead with its longtime programming strategy. “There is no desire to shift the position it has in the market. It’s a very successful business, and we are undergoing a transition to new leadership that should not flag at all a transition of the underlying positioning or the strategy of the channels.”

Those were the words of James Murdoch in August 2016. He then served as chief executive of 21st Century Fox. Nor was he kidding around — whatever Fox News’s internal leadership changes, its news sensibilities have followed a straight line: Propagandistic opinion shows in prime time and early morning, interrupted by right-leaning “straight news” shows.

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That very same James Murdoch is no longer speaking for Fox News. He has exited the family business after 21st Century Fox sold key film and TV assets to Disney. What remains of that company is now known as Fox Corp., a sports-and-news company that includes Fox News. Lachlan Murdoch is the executive chairman and chief executive of Fox Corp. James Murdoch is piloting Lupa Systems, a firm that invests in media properties.

In a chat with Vanity Fair’s Radhika Jones at the magazine’s New Establishment Summit, James Murdoch was asked whether he watches Fox News. “Uh, no,” he responded. He expressed disappointment in the departure of former daytime anchor Shepard Smith from Fox News and made these remarks about contemporary U.S. politics: “One thing I would say is that as we continue to make, as a society, bad decisions on a number of things — as we continue to not act aggressively on climate change, on providing appropriate and competitive health care to our people, to allow income inequality to balloon in a way that it has. I would observe that the more you leave it unsolved, the most draconian a solution is going to have to be to get there.” And he recently told the New Yorker, “The connective tissue of our society is being manipulated to make us fight with each other, making us the worst versions of ourselves.”

To repeat: This same fellow said in 2016 that Fox News would stay the course, as a purveyor of climate denialism, a platform for bogus attacks on health-care reform, a proponent of policies that exacerbate income inequality.

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An April New York Times investigation of the Murdoch family machinations reported that James Murdoch actually lost a fight over the future of Fox News at that critical juncture:

When Roger Ailes, the chief executive of Fox News, was ousted in 2016 amid a sexual harassment scandal, James wanted to revamp the network as a less partisan news outlet. He even floated the idea of hiring David Rhodes, a CBS executive. His proposals went nowhere. Lachlan and Rupert opposed any change to what they saw as a winning formula and decided to stick with Fox’s incendiary programming.

That James Murdoch is now on the outside and Lachlan Murdoch on the inside says a lot about how the network responds to its occasional crises, whether it’s Tucker Carlson’s racist remarks or Sean Hannity’s long swims in ethics-free waters or the sweet propaganda of “Fox & Friends.” There’s a steel spine in place to defend the Fox News way. After all, it pays.