Business and the media with Rupert Murdoch

05 Feb 2010

Speakers: Peter M Robinson, Rupert Murdoch

Why Now?

Murdochology has become an important art for politicians and journalists. In Britain right now, we are all trying to understand why Murdoch wants to buy the 60% of BSkyB, the satellite channel, that he does not already own. Here, we bring you an interview he gave to the Hoover Institution, an American, right-wing, Murdoch-friendly think-tank. In the interview, his guard is low, and it offers the opportunity to understand the man a little better. For a picture of determination that should worry anyone in his line of fire, look at his hands as he veers off-topic on the question of which establishment he is going after now: “we’ll get there...we’re getting there...”

Murdoch is a divisive figure. He is derided by some as a bullying megalomaniac who won't be happy until he completely controls the flow of all news. Yet to others he represents the pinnacle of a competitive market. His political influence is often highlighted, and his media empire has been cited in the election and demise of successive governments. The Daily Mail has recently accused David Cameron of stalling publication of No10 guest lists because the name Rupert Murdoch was among the first to attend under the new government, as indeed he was with Tony Blair in 1997.

Murdoch, who admits in this interview to still thinking that Attlee was a good Prime Minister and who once kept a bust of Lenin on his window sill whilst studying at Oxford (before he “grew up” and embraced capitalism and conservatism) has always sworn that political impartiality and a free press are what he is fighting for. This stance underpins one of his most vociferous arguments as he trials online paywalls, that the BBC should be scrapped as it distorts the media market and will harm the survival of the media industry.

Whether it is to learn from a master or know your enemy better, watch this interview.

Summary:

Rupert Murdoch owns the controlling interest in News Corp., which in turn owns media properties on five continents – properties that include some 170 newspapers, dozens of television stations, half a dozen television networks, a publishing company, and a movie studio.

In this wide-ranging interview, Murdoch discusses his rise from proprietor of the Adelaide News at the age of 22 (on the death of his father) to international media mogul. Weighing in on topics as varied as capitalism, feature films, China, and Google, the conversation invariably returns to newspapers and journalism. He answers charges about the political slant to his papers. “[The Wall Street Journal] certainly hasn’t become conservative – maybe just a little more balanced…. And the rest of the press is often monolithically unfair.” He asserts that, “in today’s digital age, content is not just king, it’s the emperor” and rejects the idea that the government must get involved to ensure the survival of a free press (an idea suggested by Dan Rather). “A bailout for newspapers?” Rupert Murdoch calls it “rubbish, and very dangerous rubbish.”