It's 'Highly Unlikely' Lachlan Murdoch Will Run News Corp Publishing Rupert Says

The News Corp CEO just said in an interview on Fox News that his son is happy running his businesses in Australia. And there's no decision yet about whether his other kids, including James and Elisabeth Murdoch, might play bigger roles once the media giant is divided into an entertainment company and a publishing one. 'They have to earn it, and they have to want it,' Rupert says. He also told interviewer Neil Cavuto that he's no longer interested in BSkyB. 'We've moved on in our thinking'.I'm much more bullish about America.' Europe is in for 'a tough, long haul' and possibly a recession while 'we've got things to be very bullish about in this country.' No, he isn't tacitly endorsing Pres. Obama. 'I'm taking a medium and long term view' of the economy. Indeed, he says that the presidential election might not have a big impact on News Corp although 'if taxes go up, we'll have less cash. If that happens, the economy will go down.'

He pretty much stuck to the company's script on other questions regarding the split plans. Reflecting his newspaper heritage, he says execs decided to announce the news today instead of tomorrow ' where it would appear in the next day's papers ' because 'only bad news gets reported on a Saturday.' The company also didn't want to wait until next week when many people will be off for July 4. He gave no hints about who might run publishing. He also reiterated what he told analysts this morning that he isn't responding to the UK hacking scandals. 'It has nothing to do with it at all. At all.'

Cavuto asked his boss to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that basically upheld Pres. Obama's health care law. Murdoch says he's 'a little surprised' but called it 'a big victory for the president' even though 'every poll shows it's not popular.' Bottom line is that 'I don't think it will affect our business very much.' He says that health care costs here are 'outrageously expensive and going up too fast.' But he also notes that the law is long, and complicated.