_Rupert Murdoch is addicted to media and politics. He will be continually looking over Lachlan’s shoulder.

_

In his resignation letter to staff Rupert Murdoch said-‘I can guarantee that I will be involved every day in the contest of ideas…I will be watching our broadcasts with a critical eye, reading our newspapers and websites and books with much interest and reaching out to you with thoughts, ideas and advice… you can expect to see me in the office late on Friday afternoons’.

That hardly sounds like a resignation letter.

But why now for this announcement by Emeritus Chairman, Rupert Murdoch?

Perhaps it is designed to distract attention from another searing book by Michael Wolff, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty. Rupert has a great media sense on how to distract or attract attention.

Rupert Murdoch began in Adelaide with much promise and a radical reputation. In his twilight years we see him embracing Donald Trump and promoting the polarisation of the US. It is a sad story of what might have been.

The way News Corp operates must be traced to Murdoch himself for he has told us that for better or worse (News Corp) is a reflection of my own thinking, my character and my values.

Let me give some examples of how News Corp operates.

The late Ken Cowley was the top lieutenant to Rupert Murdoch for twenty seven years in Australia. He saw the way the family behaves. He was my Production Manager in Sydney at News Ltd.

Unwisely, a decade ago ago Cowley told the_Australian Financial Review_that Lachlan Murdoch was not particularly smart and that_The Australian_ is pathetic. He regarded Elizabeth as the smartest of the children.

After Cowley’s comments people were wheeled out within 24 hours to defend Lachlan. Cowley was brought to heel._The Australian_extracted the following from him: The Australian has always been good, the Editor in Chief has been doing an excellent job I have great respect for Lachlan Murdoch.

But this was all too late to avoid the smackdown._The Australian_had a leak, presumably from someone near the Murdoch family, that one of Cowleys business ventures had gone bad. News Corp refused Cowleys request for help. The News Corp modus operandi was clearly on display. Take us on at your peril.

Rod Tiffens book_Rupert Murdoch, a reassessment_, published by UNSW Press Ltdin 2013, tells us a great deal about how News Corp operates. His account is consistent with my own experience.

Tiffens central conclusion is that News Corp is a rogue organisation.

These outrages [the hacking scandals] were not the product of a few rogue individuals as much as of a rogue corporation. Of course, the great majority of News Corps 50,000-plus employees, and the overwhelming majority of its journalists, are as repelled as the rest of the population by the abuses that have been revealed.

However, the scandals were the product of a corporation where power is, perhaps uniquely, concentrated and where a confirming hierarchical culture makes it difficult for instructions to be questioned or challenged. This is a corporation impatient with any ethical impediments to achieving the results it wants and which greets external criticism with blanket denial and often aggression.

It is not a matter of a few rotten apples. The malady is deep seated.

Tiffen describes the governance of News Corp as a docile board, acquiescent management in the thrall of the genius of their CEO, a vision of hereditary succession and a whatever it takes ethic. Only a company with that sort of governance could pay $A89 million in remuneration in fiscal year 2017 to Rupert, Lachlan and James Murdoch from 20th Century Fox alone.

When confronted with even mild criticism News Corps retainers go into immediate attack mode and turn the issue into us against them. Them being a politically correct elite.

In 1992, UK prime minister John Major had just won an election. He asked the editor of the London_Sun_how he proposed to cover Britains decision on the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. He was told, Well John let me put it this way, Ive got a bucket of shit on my desk and tomorrow morning I am going to throw it all over your head. The ALP gets the same bucket treatment in Australian elections while News Corp slavishly protects the Coalition and big business.

Ed Milliband, the leader of the British Labour Party, was foolish enough to say that Rebecca Brooks, who was charged before UK courts, should examine her conscience. The_Sun_political editor responded: We take it personally and we are going to make it personal to you. We wont forget. (p.309)

Tom Watson a British MP who relentlessly and courageously tracked News Corp, tells of threats, bullying, covert surveillance, hacking, aggressive reporting and personal abuse at the hands of News Corp. (p.288)

Appalled by News Corps methods of operations, the UK Parliamentary Committee by majority vote (Labour and Liberal Democrat) found that Rupert Murdoch was not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major international company. (p.265) Perhaps the Conservatives were too frightened to say what they really thought.

On page 327, Tiffen says perhaps too politely that Murdochs power has more often diminished, rather than benefitted, the quality of democratic life. It has been most obvious in the massive telephone hacking scandal in the UK.

The_New York Times_identified Rupert Murdoch as someone Donald Trump speaks to on the phone every week although the White House denies this. At the ceremony in New York to remember the Battle of the Coral Sea, Donald Trump said: Thank you my very good friend Rupert Murdoch. There is only one Rupert we know.

He is the largest employer of journalists in the English-speaking democracies. News Ltd holds 70% of the circulations of metropolitan dailies in Australia. In Brisbane and Adelaide, there is little alternative to News Corp publications. Not content with its stranglehold on metropolitan media, News Corp wants to cripple the ABC.

Famous US journalist Carl Bernstein speaks of Murdochs destructive march across the democratic landscape. (p.327)

Matthew Freud, Murdochs son-in-law told the_New York Times_: I am by no means alone within the family or the company being ashamed by Roger Ailes (the CEO of Fox News) horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News, its founder and every other global media business aspires to. (p.252) Yet Murdoch could say with a straight face: People love Fox News. (p.253)

The slogan of Fox News used to be fair and balanced. But perhaps after the ridicule that followed and the demise of Roger Ailes and Bill OReilly, the slogan was changed to most-watched and trusted. But even that is not true. MSNBC regularly out-rates it and Fact Checks make it the most negatively rated.

News Corp lives by a code of never admitting a mistake. It was the shrillest of all the urgers supporting the invasion of Iraq. The London Sun said of Saddam Husseins WMD Hes got them. We know hes got them. Many newspapers such as the_New York Times,_the_Washington Post_and the_Economist_have confessed that they got it badly wrong on Iraq. I have yet to hear of a News Corp outlet that has made a similar confession despite almost a million deaths in Iraq and neighbouring countries and untold destruction and chaos. Critics of News Corp were described as weasels. Germany and France who opposed the invasion were an axis of weasels._The Australian_referred to opponents of the invasion as the ‘coalition of the whining.

Just as it was grievously wrong on Iraq and the Middle East New Corp now continually tells us we are all wrong on global warming despite the overwhelming scientific evidence. Murdoch dismisses renewable energy as windmills and all that nonsense. Like Joe Hockey, he decries the renewable energy projects that are ruining the English countryside with uneconomic bird-killing windmills.

Murdoch told us in 2014 that the NBN was a ridiculous idea. It still is.

On page 314 of his book, Tiffen recounts that. Bruce Guthrie, Associate Editor of the Melbourne_Herald_, asked Murdoch at a Confab at Aspen, Colorado, in June 1988 Do you have an ethical framework at all at the London_Sun_. Tiffen records that Murdoch turned red with anger, and said to Cowley, I see we have a Fairfax wanker in our midst It was not a good career move for Guthrie.

Murdoch boastfully and recklessly told Thomas Kiernan in Citizen Murdoch You tell these bloody politicians whatever they want to hear and once the deal is done you dont worry about it (Tiffen p 185). News Corp trifles with the truth. Murdoch told the Leveson Enquiry I have never asked a PM for anything. Only the most nave and partisan would believe that. I know he asked Prime Minister Whitlam that he be appointed Australian High Commissioner in London. I know because I was the intermediary. Its true but Murdoch denies it

There is no doubt that Murdoch does inspire the loyalty of staff. They are usually well paid and provided they remain loyal, they will prosper.They are astute mind readers.We see that time and time again. However, many people with the ability or a point of view dont stay for long either by their own choice or through dismissal. Andrew Neil, the Editor of the_Sunday Times_commented that During the eleven years I was editor Rupert fired or eased out every Chief Executive of real talent or independent mindset . [Murdoch] has never expressed regret about those he has axed and has repeatedly said that every individual can be replaced Tiffen p.298.

Loyalty counts for more than competence.

In China, Murdoch failed to make commercial progress. One reason was that he was impatient, but the more important reason is quite simply that he could not brow-beat the political leadership in China in the way he has been able to brow-beat almost all political leaders in Australia, the UK and the US.

Rod Tiffen explains very persuasively how and why News Corp is a rogue organisation that is doing untold damage to the fabric of public life. It will take us a long time to repair the awful damage.

Yet in his early days, Murdoch offered so much promise and hope. After the entrenched conservatism and parochialism of the state-based media,The Australian was a breath of fresh air. But the air has now gone rank and putrid. What a tragedy Murdochs career has been for himself and the media.

Robert Caro, Lyndon Johnson’s biographer wrotePower doesnt always corrupt. What power always does is reveal. When a guy gets into a position where he doesnt have to worry anymore then you see what he wanted to do all along

Power has revealed the real Rupert Murdoch.

This is and updated post from 27 October, 2017. I was General Manager News Corp, Sydney, 1967-74

See also:

QUENTIN DEMPSTER. COUNTERING RUPERT MURDOCHS PLAN TO DESTROY PUBLIC BROADCASTING IN AUSTRALIA.

ROBERT MANNE. MURDOCHS WAR.

RODNEY TIFFEN. MURDOCH THE TABLOID TWEETER TANGLES THE TRUTH.

JOHN MENADUE TALKS TO JON FAINE ABOUT RUPERT MURDOCH, THE GREAT RENT-SEEKER (REPOST)

The first biography of Lachlan Murdoch provides some insights, but leaves important questions unanswered