Murdoch is a native Australian and got a good broadside from the senior when it came to inheritance. If the father had built up a nice media pool with newspapers, he dumped his son Keith Rupert with the local mail “The News”. The shame aroused the ambition and Murdoch gradually began to incorporate large parts of the Australian press landscape.
Rupert Murdoch uses the background as a stage
From Down Under it went to the British Empire, where Murdoch acquired the “News of the World” in 1968, a Sunday tabloid with a large circulation and a lot of trouble in the bag. Soon he should also own “The Sun” and the renowned “Times”. With the jump across the pond he landed his biggest coups to date: He joined the entertainment company 20th Century Fox and acquired the “Wall Street Journal”.
His network of media became more and more dense and like a fly got caught in it Tony Blair (67), Gordon Brown (70) and David Cameron (54) – all British prime ministers who would probably never have held this office without the string puller Murdoch. In the arte documentary “The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty”, the British actor Hugh Grant (60, “Notting Hill”) has his say: “I don’t think David Cameron or Tony Blair dared to do it either just coughing without Rupert Murdoch’s permission. “
Whether that was really the case remains to be seen. The fact is, Blair is the godfather of one of Murdoch’s daughters. In the documentary, the Labor politician is even said to have an affair with Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng (52), there is no evidence for these rumors, the material is definitely Hollywood-ready.
Donald Trump: US President by Murdoch’s grace?
With “Fox News” Murdoch also started the engine of the propaganda machine for Donald Trump (74), who turned out to be a true quota guarantor before and during his US presidency. A win-win situation for politicians and publishers alike that should last until the 2020 presidential election. The broadcaster did not support the lie of Trump’s supposed election victory, and Murdoch withdrew his favor. One or the other 007 fan might think of certain parallels to the James Bond villain Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce): A power-obsessed media mogul reaches for world domination in “Tomorrow Never Dies”. His means: questionable headlines and the powerful henchman Stamper (Götz Otto).
Of course, the Hollywood material cannot be transferred one-to-one into reality and should not be. The questionable headlines and crude methods of obtaining information were quite real. The bugging scandal of his tabloid “News of the World” was Murdoch’s undoing in 2011. For years, the newspaper’s employees had illegally spied on people, tapped cell phones and bribed police officers. When he testified before a British parliamentary committee, Murdoch spoke of the “most humiliating day” of his life.
Who will inherit the Murdoch Empire?
However, Murdoch knows how to deal with shame, true to the motto: What doesn’t kill me makes me tougher. And Murdoch certainly is, especially to his own family. While daughter Elisabeth (52) broke away from her father and built her own – significantly smaller – media empire, the sons Lachlan (49) and James (48) vied for their father’s recognition for a long time. He watches over his empire with eagle eyes, which Lachlan, who is considered to be just as conservative as his father, will ultimately inherit. Until then, the Murdoch dynasty will remain on the trigger, and even 90 years will not change that.
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