According to The Man Who Owns the News, the Murdoch biography by Michael Wolff, Murdoch does not seek attention and avoids ostentatious displays of wealth. He does not indulge in lavish vacations nor wallow in the luxuries he can well afford. He does not have close friends, and never has. “Too busy, to tell you the truth,” Murdoch explains. He is not a good communicator, but is a fairly good listener, terminally curious and hungry for gossip.
Murdock Must Win
What Murdoch seeks above all else is victory; he wants to win. The results of winning, such as vast amounts of money and power are of far less interest to him than the thrill of winning itself-of beating the competition. He has even been willing to lose money in order to win. This single-minded devotion to winning has left Murdoch with little time or interest in reflecting on why he strives. He appears to have never given it any thought, except for wanting to pass his empire on to his heirs.
Murdoch: Born to Wealth
Rupert Murdoch was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1931 to Sir Keith and Elizabeth, who was twenty-four years younger than her husband. Rupert was the only boy, the son and heir with three sisters. His father was a powerful newspaper publisher and the Murdochs, following the custom of upper-class families, sent ten year-old Rupert to Geelong Grammar School, which he hated. He did not like sports, which the school emphasized, and the other boys disliked him, which was fine with Rupert who did not then, and does not now, feel any need to be liked.
Murdoch: Roots
His father had become something of a war correspondent-hero by blowing the whistle on the engagement in Gallipoli in 1915, where the British had ordered eight thousand Australian and New Zealand soldiers to their death in a failed battle against the Turks. With inside information and connections in high places, Keith wrote to the Prime Minister recounting the story as he remembered it and as a result, the British General was removed and the men in Galliopoli were evacuated.
Murdoch: Building an Empire
Political connections and influence on world events have been taken to even greater heights by Rupert, who inherited one of his father’s newspapers at age twenty-two. After his father’s sudden death, some of the Murdoch papers were sold against Rupert’s wishes and the young Murdoch realized, “what the rich are up against: other people who are rich.” Murdoch published aggressively and began acquiring other newspapers with the winning formula of giving the people what they want: louder, bloodier, and larger than life stories. At the age of forty-two Murdoch expanded into the U.K., accumulating media properties there. His influence in British politics was well-known and the candidates his papers supported were the ones who were elected, first Conservative Margaret Thatcher and then Labor Party’s Tony Blair. Secret meetings between Blair and Murdoch had caused some concern in the U.K. at the time, according to The Guardian. After Blair, Murdoch switched back to support Conservative David Cameron.
Murdoch in the U.S.
Murdoch made his first U.S. newspaper purchase in 1973, the San Antonio Express-News, quickly followed by the establishment of The Star, a supermarket tabloid, and the New York Post. In 1985 Murdoch became a naturalized U.S. citizen in order to legally move into television station ownership. In 1986 he founded Fox Network and in 1996 Fox News. Murdoch now owns newspapers, book publishing companies, and television stations around the world and according to Forbes, is worth $7.6 billion.
The phone-hacking scandal exposed by the Guardian which has led to the closing of Murdoch’s Sun and the arrest, resignation, and/or continuing investigation of journalists, police officers, and politicians may or may not prove to be Murdoch’s undoing. He has weathered many scandals in the past and come out on top. It’s all about winning.
Reference: Michael Wolff, The Man Who Owns the News, 2008, Broadway Books
