In the Murdoch family succession battle, Fox News and democracy hang in the balance

A 91-year-old billionaire sits atop a global media empire, while his adult children vie to control the family company in the next generation. 

It sounds like the plot of the HBO series Succession, but New York Times journalist Jim Rutenberg says the real-life drama involving Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch and his children, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth and Prudence, rivals anything a screenwriter could dream up.

"I ... have always suspected that the Succession writers have some mole in the family, because it's just too many things they seem to know," Rutenberg says. "It's just got...