• Daily Beast, Tuesday, January 12, 2010 12 AM

Wendi Murdoch encouraged Rupert's son-in-law to fire a rocket at Fox News boss Roger Ailes -- the first shot in an escalating war between Murdoch's adult heirs and the company brass for the future of one of media's hottest enterprises.

The 78-year-old Murdoch continues to control as chairman and chief executive. The first shot was fired today on The New York Times' Web site by British public-relations executive Matthew Freud, married to Murdoch's daughter, Elizabeth. Freud's frontal attack on Ailes is an apparent attempt to force News Corp.'s founder to choose between blood and money, between his progeny and his most-prized executive.

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