Breaking News: Sex, Lies & the Murdoch Succession
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley November 25, 2013
Author Paul Barry
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ISBN: 978-1-74175-978-5
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
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Website: http://www.allenandunwin.com
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There’s not a lot of sex in this book but there are a lot of lies which makes for more than interesting reading on one of the most, shall we say “colourful” families this world has seen in modern times. There others who have graced the limelight such as the Kennedy family but never to the same extent as Rupert Murdoch and his brood. With 2014 bound to bring more revelations about this fascinating family make sure you grab a copy and enjoy the journey. As Paul Barry says the story just keeps on getting better and better.
As Paul Barry says the story just keeps on getting better and better leaving the realms of fantasy and farce far behind. The issue with all of this is it is real, very, very real and has a very, very real impact and significance on people’s lives. A point that, in his quest to be the most powerful and influential man in the world, Rupert Murdoch totally, completely and irrevocably disregards.
Much has been documented on the Murdoch’s, Rupert in particular over the years, as his rise and fall and rise has created the type of material no self-respecting journalist, who is not working for one of the Murdoch media interests, could hardly resist.
In Breaking News we get to have a look in some ways into the less documented side of Rupert Murdoch, following him from his boyhood in Victoria to his youth spent at Geelong Grammar then, as a young man, his time spent at Oxford University.
As a privileged youth he had only the best but his father, Newspaper mogul Sir Keith Murdoch, made sure his son and heir to the Newspaper empire he had built up understood the world of Newspapers, making him do short spells in the family business where Rupert developed what was to become his lifelong love of newspapers and the print media.
He inherited some of his father’s business acumen, enjoyed the adrenaline rush of buying and selling and living on the financial edge, but somewhere along the track he lost his sense of perspective about so many things in relation to what was and was not legal.
Or did he? This is the question that only Rupert may be able to answer, or does he truly see himself as the champion of the underdog and that he is doing the right thing by “exposing all’ through whatever means it takes?
He set himself and his media network up to be the judge and jury of anything and everything he felt needed to be judged, commented about and people needed to be informed about, thereby coining the modern phrase “trial by media”.
But these days Rupert and his brood have a problem; they went far too far with the British Tabloid sector of their business empire, resulting in the News of the World being shut down, The Sun wobbling dangerously, the Murdoch family, their cohorts Rebecca Brooks, Andy Coulson and many others losing their jobs, getting arrested and now having to appear in the British Courts over their actions of phone tapping, bribery and so much more.
Since that fateful day in 2012 when not only the British public said enough, the World said enough to the muck raking going on, Rupert has so far managed to fail to remember just about everything possible in relation to the “goings on” at News of the World.
He has managed to carry on business as usual, dividing his News Limited empire into two separate companies, divorcing his third wife Wendy Deng, tried to sort out the line of succession for when he will, or may, or does, step down as Head of News Limited and associated companies, which is not too bad for a purportedly frail old man, who was having memory problems in 2012 when placed in front of the British House of Commons to answer some seriously tricky questions about his role on the News of the World hacking scandal.
All this and more is well documented in this latest look at the Murdoch families trials and tribulations, which while it is by no means a light hearted look at the goings on behind the scenes it does add a dimension to a fascinating group of people, Rupert included, who were and are trying please the parent and fit the mould.
Who will succeed Rupert Murdoch once he moves on, which as he is quoted as saying, “they’ll carry me out”, still remains a mystery.
He is yet to face the British Judicial system, his former workers, colleges and others also have to be held accountable for the way they conducted their business, that of reporting the “news”.
As 2013 draws to a close and 2014 has not yet arrived, the trials of Rebecca Brooks, Andy Coulson, Ian Edmondson, Stuart Kuttner and others have commenced. The charges are many and wide ranging. The end result is yet to be decided.
Rupert continues to twist and turn but with so many questions being asked, so much information coming to light and so many people under oath it makes one wonder just where it will all end; in happy ending for Rupert and his media interests or will we really discover whether there is truth in the old adage “What goes ‘round, comes ‘round”.
Breaking News is a quick fire way get up to date rapidly with a story which makes the soapies look like fairy tales and real life, well, it makes you wonder!
With 2014 bound to bring more revelations about this fascinating family make sure you grab a copy and enjoy the journey.