News Corporation | The Monthly

Murdoch’s Tweets of Doom

Rockin’ Rupert

By Peter Conrad

Tweeting, as the Beat poets might have said, is for the birds – though what kind of bird exactly? Most users of Twitter sound like fatuously chirping budgies. But Rupert Murdoch’s fluffy plumage moulted long ago, and the tweets he has been posting since 31 December resemble the hoarse emissions of a buzzard or a baleful raven, uttering prophecies of doom. “Time ahead very, very tough an

David McKnight’s 'Rupert Murdoch: An Investigation of Power'

The Politics of News

By David Marr

Australian journalists have a sad history of going off to Washington to be ruined. They leave home the hope of the side but after a visit to the boiler room and a peek into the furnace they return enthralled by American ambitions and dream of becoming players in its games of power. Rupert Murdoch was one of these. Visiting Washington in 1972, the young tycoon fell under the spell of Richard N

November 2011

Notes on Evidence Given to the Media Inquiry

By Robert Manne

Somewhat to the surprise of the head of the media inquiry, Ray Finkelstein, I had drawn only two main conclusions in my recently published study of the Australian, “Bad News”. Firstly, the paper would only change as a consequence of courageous and persistent criticism both from outsiders – individuals and other media – and from those insiders who disapproved either of the way the ideological agenda of the newspaper distorted the

The Corporate Fallacy

Comment

By Noel Pearson

In the same month, Macfarlane told an international conference of banking supervisors in Sydney that it was “simplistic to insist on the totally free movement of capital in all countries and in all circumstances” and said, “We need to devise a system for maximising the benefits to be gained from international capital while limiting the risks.” A mont

Michael Wolff’s 'The Man Who Owns the News'

Vanity Fare

By Gideon Haigh

In the mid 1960s, Fred Friendly, friend of and producer to the legendary newsman Ed Murrow, visited his boss at CBS, the no-less legendary William Paley, and fell to arguing about the network's profitability. "How much money did CBS make last year?" demanded F

The future of journalism as a public trust

War of Words

By Eric Beecher

"I don't want Rupert Murdoch to decide what belongs in the Wall Street Journal news pages. The essence of a great newspaper is independence, even from its proprietors and shareholders, and Murdoch, in the final analysis, hasn't come down on that side."- Peter

Wendi Deng Murdoch

By Eric Ellis

Deng Wen Ge - she changed her name to Wendi in her mid-teens - was born in Shandong around the time that her future husband was buying London's News of the World. One of three children, she grew up in neighbouring Xuzhou as a Subei ren - a vernacular term for the robust

Disconnect in the Fourth Estate

Media Circus

By David Salter

Comment

By Robert Manne

Sam I Am

By David Salter

“OK, Salter. Now, tell me again why the hell I’m doing this.”Sam Chisholm, perfectly presented in black trousers, crisp white shirt and azure silk tie, had finally descended from the first floor of his splendid St Ives home. It was 9.15 am; I’d arrived

How a lovestruck teenager, an angry man and an ambitious baron made sure bad news was no news on the path to Iraq

Murdoch's War

By Robert Manne

Four months later on January 17, 2003, the Hobart Mercury was singing the standard Murdoch tune:History is littered with the victims of tyrants and the tattered reputations of those who failed to take a stand against them … There may be some disquiet in the