The REAL Rupert Murdoch 

by Anonymous

The PBS produced Frontline video, "Who's Afraid of Rupert Murdoch?" offers a good introductory overview of Murdoch's life, business dealings and business tactics. The following is a synopsis of some of the material presented in the video. He spent his teenage years at racetracks gambling. He referred to Lenin as "the great teacher" to bother his father, later while a student at Oxford he had a bust of Lenin on the mantle.

While a student at Oxford he ran for office in a labor club and was disqualified after distributing flyers for breaking rules that prohibit self promotion. "He breaks the rules sometimes of gentlemanly conduct, and he's made a career out of doing that." ---Thomas Kiernan, biographer.

In his will Sir Keith said that he hoped Rupert would spend a useful altruistic life in newspapers and broadcasting, if, he added, the trustees considered Rupert worthy of that support. According to his mother, his "father was somewhat critical of Rupert as a young man and questioned whether he had it in him to take over the company."

In London he took a job as copy editor of the Daily Express on Fleet Street where "he came to believe that newspapers were meant to entertain, not educate." ---Ken Auletta, narrator.

Political Influence and The Australian

In The Australian, which Murdoch founded, he wanted a serious quality paper to give him credibility and political influence. "...he started to think of himself as somebody who could perhaps take part in the making and unmaking governments, particularly unmaking I think."--- MungoMacCullum, former political reporter The Australian. In 1972 he supported labor party candidate Gough Whitlam as prime minister of Australia. Whitlam claims that after the election Murdoch demanded to be made ambassador to London. Murdoch denied this. "Rupert certainly felt that there was a quid pro quo  involved." --- MungoMacCullum. In 1975 instead of supporting Whitlam, Murdoch supported the more conservative Malcolm Fraser and so did The Australian. "..nothing appeared in the paper if it didn't follow the line, ...most extraordinarily ruthless and one sided political coverage I think any of us can remember, and we devoutly hope we never see it again."----MungoMacCullum, former political reporter. 

The Australian.
Malcom Fraser won and following the election papers were burned in the streets and journalists striked, not over money but ethics. Later at Murdoch's request Malcolm Fraser had laws on foreign ownership of television stations changed which allowed Murdoch to maintain residency elsewhere.

News of the World Acquisition
The News of the World was the biggest selling newspaper in Britain and since 1891 had been family owned (majority owned). Robert Maxwell, a corporate raider was threatening to buy the paper so the William Carr family sought a "white knight" to save them form the undesirable Robert Maxwell. Rupert Murdoch described himself as that "white knight" promising that Sir William can stay on as chairman while Murdoch would be managing director and purchase 40% of the stock. Rupert Murdoch promised that he would not seek majority ownership. When the shareholders voted they chose Murdoch over Maxwell because that was what the Carr family wanted, even though Maxwell
was offering more money. Six months after the merger Murdoch broke his word and sought majority control. "The Carrs were outraged and called Murdoch a liar. The charge that his word was counterfeit would follow him." The papers reputation, which was not good before Murdoch, worsened and became known as "the news of the screws". 
Sun
The News of the World was a weekly and Murdoch also wanted a daily so in 1969 he bought the Sun. "He regarded journalism really as a branch of the entertainment business, and he thought that people bought a paper not to be instructed or edified or to know about the world, but to have a laugh."--- Alan Watkins, newspaper columnist Under Murdoch the Sun started printing the "Sun Lovely", a topless model on page three.
New York Post
In 1976 Murdoch bought the New York Post, the oldest continuously published daily in America. Rupert Murdoch's wife Anna told Thomas Kiernan (who has written a biography of Murdoch) that if he put page three girls in the New York Post as he wanted to do, she would leave him because she didn't want her children to see it. "He's a complex personality, because if you read the editorials in his newspapers there are very highly moralistic and they are very highly principled and so on, and yet they appear in papers that are almost without principles journalistically."--- Thomas Kiernan.  According to Steve Dunleavy, reporter for the New York Post, Murdoch made the paper more conservative and replaced one fourth of the staff with tabloid reporters previously employed by Murdoch. 

London Times
In 1981 Murdoch bought the 200 year old Times of London. According to Andrew Neil, former editor the Sunday Times, because Murdoch already owned The Sun and The News of the World his acquisition of the Times should have been referred to the monopolies commission but was not because Murdoch had the right political connections. However the Articles of Association in parliament do commit Murdoch to not be involved in the editorial direction the paper takes, in the way he has been involved with The Sun and the News of the World. "He's a good businessman and a lousy journalist, a lousy journalist in the sense that he doesn't believe in public interest journalism, and he doesn't keep his promises, he's a liar, he's incontinent in breach of promises, and also he's a very treacherous person, it has to be said"---Harold Evans, who resigned as editor of Times one year after Murdoch took over.

Clandestine Operation to Bust Times Union
The printing equipment for the Times was antiquated and the union refused to let the machines be updated for fear of losing jobs. Murdoch then secretly began an operation to produce the papers with modern computer equipment, if he could produce the paper entirely independent of the union that would entirely take away any bargaining power the union had. A team of American computer experts set up the operation in an old paper warehouse at a dock. Ben Smylie, head of the computer team, describes how the high tech machines arrived there in mis-marked crates, and cracks in the wall of the warehouse were not fixed so no one would find out about the operation. The plan worked, the union striked, all the employees were fired, and staff was brought in from Australia and New York to run the paper. Ten thousand former employees picketed in the street surrounding the new operation that was protected by barbed wire.

Twentieth Century Fox Studios and Fox Television
In 1985 Murdoch acquired Fox Studios. "Fox was given every break throughout the '80's on the grounds that a new network should be encouraged. The FCC decided that we need more networks, therefore a lot of hurdles that Fox should have had to jump over were just sort of quietly laid down, and Murdoch was allowed to just drive right on through. The irony is that Congress was complaining about violence and smuttiness on TV and Rupert Murdoch has been in the vanguard of that, at least his Fox network has, Imean it has established sort of new lows in taste on television. This argument about giving the people what they want....it's probably what Nero said when he fed Christians to the lions, as far as I know the ratings on that were very high, it was a big crowd pleaser...a terrible accident on the highway causes people to slow down stare at it, that doesn't necessarily mean you want to put it on prime time." --- Tom Shales, TV Critic Washington Post
Mention is made about Cops and A Current Affair which was the first of the tabloid televison news programs, that other networks have copied with programs like HardCopy and American Journal. "It's all news that doesn't matter, and yet it's given such importance that viewers are led to think that it does matter somehow, its mere existence cheapens the whole area of broadcast journalism"--- Tom Shales

"Murdoch knew key republican law makers had pressured the FCC on his behalf, they had even threatened to cut of the FCC funds." ---Ken Auletta 

Mention is made of NBC filing a complaint with the FCC about the ownership of Fox television, strangely though the NAACP is not mentioned. Neither is it mentioned that the law states that no more than 25% of the money used to purchase a television station can be foreign. Murdoch clearly broke the law when 99% of the money used to purchase Fox was Australian. The NAACP also appealed the ruling of the FCC, but it was denied. 

Star TV
Hong Kong based Star TV was purchased by Murdoch, it broadcasts to 54 countries in Asia in the English language. Rupert Murdoch is shown delivering the speech in which he spoke of Satellite TV being an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes. Star TV did carry BBC World News until the Chinese government complained about a BBC documentary on Mao. Although the documentary was never broadcast on Star TV, BBC World News was dropped from Star TV. NBC had filed a complaint with the FCC about the foreign ownership of Fox, but when an NBC satellite, intended for broadcasting to Asia, was destroyed when the Chinese rocket carrying it blew up, NBC withdrew their complaint. NBC is now carried on Star TV.

Business Tactics
Business tactics outlined include: A willingness to gamble the whole company on one acquisition or project, such as B Sky B. A willingness to outbid a competitor for a commodity that could be worth much more in the future, such as the rights to air NFL football. He is in it for the long haul and willing to take a loss for years if it's in his interest, such as his subsidy of The Australian for twenty years. Star TV lost two billion the first year. The strong point of the video is the interviews with people that knew or worked with Murdoch. It is a very entertaining production but unfortunately at times it is difficult to know who is speaking and what there background is, for example Alan Watkins is identified merely as a newspaper columnist, it would be nice to know what newspaper specifically. 

Any review of this documentary should note that it was a PBS production, because PBS itself is not a disinterested party. Rupert Murdoch would like to purchase more local TV stations for his Fox network. While the UHF band that many PBS stations use, may appear less than desirable at the moment, new technology may soon result in a picture quality equal to VHF. Newt Gingrich is in favor of "zeroing out" funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also has questioned the need for an FCC. Rupert Murdoch was not interviewed for this video because he said "he distrusted PBS". The narrator, Ken Auletta, concludes that Rupert Murdoch is ".... feared because what he produces can be viewed as toxic to our culture and to our democracy." Who is afraid of Rupert Murdoch? The short answer may be PBS, for very good reasons.

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