Murdoch, Ink.
Murdoch, for one, sees a natural fit between Bloomberg and the Journal's uptown rival. Bloomberg, he notes, has pledged to remain a force in national public life after leaving New York's city hall at the end of next year. To that end, owning the Times would help immensely, Murdoch reasons. Yet the prospect of competing against a Bloomberg-owned Times appears to rattle him. "I wouldn't look forward to going up against him," Murdoch told NEWSWEEK, citing his "great respect for Bloomberg's business abilities."
As Murdoch was pursuing the Journal, he left the impression with some around him that it would be a retirement present to himself. How wrong they were. The morning after the deal was sealed, Murdoch told a top lieutenant, "I know the next deal I'm going to do." Whenever Murdoch is asked about retirement plans, he generally bats it away, and his top executives appear to not expect him ever to step down. "My father has an enormous appetite for life, an enormous curiosity about the world," says his daughter Elisabeth. "Why would he not live with that kind of zest up to the last second? I love that about him."
Over the past several years, in fact, Murdoch has been rediscovering his youth. After a marriage of more than 30 years that produced three kids—Elisabeth, Lachlan and James, all in their mid- to late 30s (and there's Prudence from wife No. 1)—he wed for the third time in 1998. At 39, Wendi, who was an employee of his Hong Kong-based Star TV service, is almost 40 years younger than Murdoch; he says she's helped give him a new lease on life. "She's introduced me to some extent to a new world," Murdoch says of Wendi, who snuggled up to him last December at a dinner celebrating the close of the Dow Jones deal. "She makes me young, and has introduced me to her young friends, many of them the brightest people in New York." Murdoch now tends to wear more-casual black fashion outside of work, and his hair appears to betray appointments with a colorist. "Wendi is a great force for Rupert," says his friend Diller. "She is equally ambitious. She wants to have a full life for him and for herself. It's quite sweet to watch."
Part of that full life includes two young girls, 5 and 7, with Wendi, and their status as heirs and other issues reportedly were behind a family crisis in recent years concerning inheritance. But the dispute was ultimately resolved, helped along by James, the only Murdoch offspring currently employed by the company. Accordingly, a family trust distributed $600 million of News Corp. shares and cash, or $150 million each, to the Murdoch brood last year. James, 35, is his father's presumed heir apparent after a December promotion that ceded him oversight of News Corp.'s European and Asian operations. But don't expect Murdoch to hand the Journal and the rest of his empire over to his son any time soon. He's having too much fun playing Hearst to Sulzberger's Pulitzer.
© 2008
Loading Menu
Member Comments
Posted By: getzel @ 04/25/2008 3:03:07 PM
Comment: Mr. Murdoch: Why no coverage of one of the biggest untold stories in 2008: Condoleezza Rice has an oil super tanker transporting oil to and from the mid east: named on the side of the supertanker CONDOLEEZZA RICE; ok they erased her name when she went in politics and parade her as a provost.
Google it to see a picture of the CONDOLEEZZA RICE super tanker!
That fact should get the readers suspicion up that something is terribly wrong.
Intelligence analyst: Getzel
License reporters like Doctors, Lawyers, & CPAs
Any reporter on cable, satellite, or TV, or radio should be licensed and certified as a master in the field he/she reports on or they should not be allowed to call it news. We need talk radio to be free market, government butt out; however talk shows should be required to disclose the calls are not a random sample if the calls are screened as to the callers question.
The reporters today, which of course I do not have a TV, are almost invariably not remotely knowledgeable about the issues they cover and therefore do not even know how to ask the significant questions.
With one example I think I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt how broken the news reporters are and news reporting is. Out of 300 million Americans I doubt more than a few thousand are aware that Condoleezza Rice has an oil supertanker named after her; And that her name was changed off the supertanker before she went in politics and Condi is presented as a Provost instead of a major player in oil. I believe that constitutes outright fraud on the part of reporters in reporting to the American people. The reporters can not be relied upon to report and the American people accept Anna Nicole and Brittany as news instead of as people magazine.
The Presidential debates should be between the candidates; the people magazine reporters parading as newsmen, in my view, dumb down the whole thing. A system for questions to be asked should revolve around people posting question on line and people voting which questions should be asked.
I think reading on line news that does not contain Newsweeks standard for a talk back blog means you are reading someone???s biased agenda that is afraid of the truth being known.
Intelligence analyst: Getzel
Posted By: itsdan @ 04/24/2008 8:43:15 AM
Comment: The print version of this story prominently calls out a quote above, but replaces "subordinates" with "lackeys." Interesting choice of words, especially for the large bold font. It seems the "respectable press" continues with its daily delusion that they are objective, and well, respectable. I'm no Murdoch fan, but I do love irony. Since I'm sure you won't even consider the possibility that your own poo doesn't stink, maybe you could at least get your lackeys on the copy desk to be more careful.
Posted By: getzel @ 04/22/2008 9:04:03 PM
Comment: Mr. Murdoch: Why no coverage of one of the biggest untold stories in 2008: Condoleezza Rice has an oil super tanker transporting oil to and from the mid east: named on the side of the supertanker CONDOLEEZZA RICE; ok they erased her name when she went in politics and parade her as a provost.
Google it to see a picture of the CONDOLEEZZA RICE super tanker!
That fact should get the readers suspicion up that something is terribly wrong.
Intelligence analyst: Getzel
License reporters like Doctors, Lawyers, & CPAs
Any reporter on cable, satellite, or TV, or radio should be licensed and certified as a master in the field he/she reports on or they should not be allowed to call it news. We need talk radio to be free market, government butt out; however talk shows should be required to disclose the calls are not a random sample if the calls are screened as to the callers question.
The reporters today, which of course I do not have a TV, are almost invariably not remotely knowledgeable about the issues they cover and therefore do not even know how to ask the significant questions.
With one example I think I can prove beyond a reasonable doubt how broken the news reporters are and news reporting is. Out of 300 million Americans I doubt more than a few thousand are aware that Condoleezza Rice has an oil supertanker named after her; And that her name was changed off the supertanker before she went in politics and Condi is presented as a Provost instead of a major player in oil. I believe that constitutes outright fraud on the part of reporters in reporting to the American people. The reporters can not be relied upon to report and the American people accept Anna Nicole and Brittany as news instead of as people magazine.
The Presidential debates should be between the candidates; the people magazine reporters parading as newsmen, in my view, dumb down the whole thing. A system for questions to be asked should revolve around people posting question on line and people voting which questions should be asked.
I think reading on line news that does not contain Newsweeks standard for a talk back blog means you are reading someone???s biased agenda that is afraid of the truth being known.
Intelligence analyst: Getzel