Elon Musk and Rupert Murdock will no longer receive RBG Leadership Award after Ginsburg family push back

Multibillionaires Elon Musk and Rupert Murdock were set to receive an award honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but after pushback from the Ginsburg family, their names have been removed.

“I don’t want to speak to what our other plans might be if the foundation doesn’t see the wisdom of desisting and ending this desecration of my mother’s memory, but I will say that we will continue to fight this,” Jim Ginsburg, the late justice’s son, said in an appearance on “CNN Newsroom.” For the younger Ginsburg, Musk and Murdock stood out.

The RBG Leadership Award, bestowed by the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation, which isn’t affiliated with the Ginsburg family, announced last week it will recognize five individuals “who have demonstrated extraordinary accomplishments in their chosen fields.”

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Space X and the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, was set to receive the award for entrepreneurship. Murdock, the owner of hundreds of news companies like The Wall Street Journal, Fox News and the New York Post, was going to be recognized for being a media mogul.

Other honorees included actor Sylvester Stallone, television personality Martha Stewart and financier Michael Milken.

Barbra Streisand, who previously won the award, also condemned the Foundation’s picks, saying “I had the privilege of meeting Justice Ginsburg on several occasions, and I strongly doubt she would approve of these awardees,” in an Instagram post.

Julie Opperman, the chairman of the foundation, in a statement, said the organization isn’t “interested in creating controversy” nor is it “interested in generating a debate about whether particular honorees are worthy or not.”

“It is important to note, that the last thing we intended was to offend the family and friends of RBG. Our purpose was only to remember her and to honor her leadership,” said Opperman, adding that they have “decided that the planned ceremony in April 2024 will be canceled.”

Ginsburg, a liberal member of the court who died in 2020 at the age of 87, was the second woman to serve on the court and a lifelong champion of women’s rights.