MURDOCH, RUPERT

Wolff, M. (2010). The man who owns the news, Inside the secret world of Rupert Murdoch, New York: Broadway Books, 456 pages.

After  the Warren Buffet book hit the stands, readers particularly in business or related found that much of what has been said about the “Oracle of Obama” was true. The author Alice Schroeder was able to at times live with Buffett and it became a very personable biography.

 Please remember that Buffet lives in a modest but well maintained middle class home (or upper middle class) house and was a good neighbor to a friend of this reviewer. He is also one of the richest men on the planet. Buffet’s book was a success.

 Wolff the author of this book had the good fortune to be hired by an assistant who worked for Murdoch. The hiring was on impulse.   Further, Rupert Murdoch was expecting a book like the one written by Alice Schroeder on Warren Buffett.  It was generally very revealing and won the hearts of readers all over the world.  Murdoch was in a funk. He wanted to take over the Wall Street Journal (which he did) and get some “good press.”  So, he was going to use the same strategy.  However, he picked the wrong person to do a “puff” piece The author was given permission to interview numerous friends and family.  However, Buffet and Murdoch are not the same kind of people.  Murdock, after reading the galley on the first  four chapters, wanted to stop the project.  By then it was too late.

The galleys or unpublished manuscripts were a disaster. Murdoch was described by even his most intimate friends as a cut throat agitator in the market place. He could not stop the project, but did cut the funds. On the other hand, the publisher found a gold mine for a resource against a not so human named Murdock

Now with his third wife, Rupert Murdoch is described as a vicious competitor.  He will go broke or overpay to destroy an opponent.  He is an old man with orange hair and rumpled skin who is sitting alone at a party.  He is a hardnosed Conservative, now surrounded by Liberals.  That is the making due to the influence of his wife, Wendi.  He hails from a newspaper family in Australia.  He knows how to make his newspapers sell. On page 3 of one of his periodicals  will have a half page devoted to daintily clad  young women.  This is tabloid.

He lives on chaos.  If he is happy, it is hard to tell.  Without a medical diagnosis , it still appears that he is an anti-social personality. He is only unhappy when he does not control a situation.  Further, he runs  many profitable corporations.  The workers are paid cheaply.  Checking on sources does not necessarily occur, and he can make things appear to be true when they are not.  He hypes a story.  On television, he will add material from the past and make something appear more than it is.

It is boilerplate tabloid.  He owns Fox News.  It is a very successful, hard right news station, and he can capture an audience and ratings on the cheap.  Fans are hard core and happy to hear something with a “fair and balanced” hard right news  feeling.

Many will come on a Fox show like Hannity  and will be beaten up.  They really  should have known better, so it is their fault. Murdoch generally leaves the management to Roger Ailes, who grew up on television production and worked for Republican candidates years ago.  Nobodymesses with Ailes, and that includes Murdoch.   Further, Rupert Murdoch does not know television like Ailes does.  However, ownership belongs to Murdoch.

Murdock, and the advent of the Internet , have inadvertently joined together to change news to Rock Music and in-your-face interviews.  Graphics, graphics, graphics is the focus of this kind of news system.  It not only angers, but it entertains.  Fox News has Fox fans.  They take pride in watching something not covered on the other stations, but perhaps covered simultaneously on the Internet or Twitter, and Fox.  The competing channels like MSNBC are changing too, but not like Fox.  If you  dare mess with Murdoch, he will show no human kindness.

He can start false rumors and ruin candidates  who are not as conservative as he. Ironically,  he should leave a hunk of change to his extended family because, on the whole, they are Liberals.  What is a man to do? While he is alive, there are new territories and other dragons to slay.   He is not only hard charging but is without mercy.

Some of the grand old newspapers of the past are now dying or dead.  In part, that should be attributed to Murdoch and the Bishops of Cable and the Internet.   Regardless of how  one feels about Murdock, you  probably  should get to know him and those like him by reading this book.   It is a good read, because it is a generational saga about an Australian family fighting to the top both in the UK and the USA. There are hard fought battles of which Murdoch may lose, but generally wins.

To Murdoch’s chagrin, the author is a talent. He is a columnist for Vanity Fair, two time winner of the National Magazine Award, as well as a commentator on CNBC. This is review comes from the paperback edition.  The characterizations of Murdoch and others come from Wolff.

Prof. Joel C. Snell

Emeritus

Kirkwood College

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

.