Rupert Murdoch vs BBC

What are Rupert Murdoch's views on the BBC? Who is he and how important is he?

Who is Rupert Murdoch?

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian American media mogul. Murdoch became managing director of Australia's News Limited, inherited from his father, in 1952. He is the founder, Chairman and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate, and its successors News Corp and 21st Century Fox after the conglomerate split on 28 June 2013.


In the 1950s and '60s, he acquired various newspapers in Australia and New Zealand, before expanding into the United Kingdom in 1969, taking over the News of the World followed closely by The Sun. He moved to New York in 1974 to expand into the US market, but retained interests in Australia and Britain. In 1981, he bought The Times, his first British broadsheet, and became a naturalized US citizen in 1985.


In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989) and The Wall Street Journal (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000 Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries with a net worth of over $5 billion.


In July 2011 Murdoch faced allegations that his companies, including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of celebrities, royalty and public citizens. He faces police and government investigations into bribery and corruption by the British government and FBI investigations in the US. On 21 July 2012, Murdoch resigned as a director of News International.
What’s so special about Rupert?


Rupert Murdoch is, to state the obvious, a very influential and successful media magnate, although after the revelations at the Leveson Inquiry it is arguable whether this will continue to be so in the future. However, if that was all it would not mark him out as a uniquely powerful press proprietor, as it is here being argued; this ‘uniqueness’ can be attributed to three key factors.


First, media magnates, both past and present, have tended to use their media interests in one of a number of causes – to advance a political cause, their business interests, their family interests or simply, themselves; for Murdoch all four seem to be equally important.


Second, unlike most other magnates, Murdoch has not confined himself to one medium or one country, but has used his newspapers, broadcasting and online outlets to ruthlessly cross-promote his global media interests both to defend them against potential predators and to attack and undermine real and potential competitors.


Third, Murdoch is probably even more ruthless than other magnates. He is ruthless in both jettisoning executives and editors and, more importantly, in jettisoning publicly undertaken commitments when he believes his corporate interests require him to do so.In the words of one of the most distinguished editors that Murdoch ever sacked, Harold Evans,‘Murdoch is the Houdini of agreements’ (Evans, 2011: xxix).


Thus it could appear that these factors explain why those governments that have tried to regulate Murdoch have found it so difficult; but in addition, lurking beneath the surface a more subtle exercise of power is taking place, here termed Murdoch’s three-card trope, which has enabled him and his global interests to survive, prosper and expand – at least, that is, until the phone-hacking scandal broke.