Or so your buddies on Facebook might tell you.

Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox is indeed set to take over National Geographic (including TV and magazine) later in November, but a story circulating around is that a few days ago he fired their "award winning staff" in what's presented as a sweeping layoff of reporters, photographers, editors, and journalists.

The reality is that, prior to the Fox takeover, the National Geographic Society decided to make these personnel cuts themselves, firing 9% of their staff of 2000, the vast majority of which were in administrative roles like legal and HR. Only four employees from the magazine were fired; all were offered severance or buyout packages.

The National Geographic Society will remain as a non-profit publishing organization but will keep 27% of the profits from its partnership with Fox. Bear in mind that Fox has owned National Geographic's TV channel for 18 years now. In addition, the Society's endowment fund will be bolstered by over $1 billion from the deal. The layoffs were a response to NatGeo's consistent decrease in subscriptions and sales -- a necessary action that any leadership board would have taken, and in this instance it allows the Society to control who was fired rather than their new ownership which has less experience with the staff.

So while it's fun to shit on Rupert Murdoch because he's a big bad rich guy, just realize that in this case, he had nothing to do with the layoffs, and buying the NatGeo Society is likely going to give them the means to rejuvenate the magazine and keep its award-winning staff in their jobs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/national-geographic-chief-says-layoffs-done-to-avert-financial-derailment/2015/11/04/83fae59a-8314-11e5-9afb-0c971f713d0c_story.html

Thank you for this. I'm no fan of him, but he's not the conservative bogeyman/second coming of Satan that some folks would like to believe.