Is Media Mogul Murdoch Falling out With His Heirs?
11.23.07 -- 6:26 PM
It’s the moment every father dreads. Sooner or later, no matter how kindly it is offered, the children will ignore your paternal advice.
Rupert Murdoch has told a group of British peers that “nobody at Sky [the company run by his younger son] listens to me”.
In evidence to a House of Lords committee, published on Friday, the News Corp chairman explained that he wanted Sky News (prop. R Murdoch) in the UK to be more like Fox News (prop. R Murdoch) in the US, if only in what he called “presentational progress”.
One would have thought this was not too hard to achieve, given that the line boss of Sky News is James Murdoch, BSkyB’s chief executive .
Not so.
Mr Murdoch senior told the committee, according to a transcript summary of his evidence, “that the only reason that Sky News was not more like Fox News was that ‘nobody at Sky listens to me.’ ”
Mr Murdoch’s complaints over less-than-compliant offspring chime with reports in the diaries of Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former press secretary, of a family disagreement at Downing Street in 2002.
When Rupert, known for his pro-Israel views, opined on the Middle East peace process, his son James turned on his dad. Complete with unfilial expletives, he rebuffed his father for talking ”nonsense”.
When Rupert finally told James that he should not talk like that in the prime minister’s house, Mr Blair reassured Murdoch Jr with the words: “I hear far worse all the time.”
Mr Murdoch, in a wide ranging interview conducted in New York last September, told the assembled peers that he thought the UK was “anti-success”. That was why he had not invested more there, for instance in local evening newspapers.
The transcript says: “Mr Murdoch did not disguise the fact that he is hands on both economically and editorially. He says that ‘the law’ prevents him from instructing the editors of The Times and The Sunday Times.”
A little later, it adds: “For The Sun and News of the World he explained that he is a “traditional proprietor”. He exercises editorial control on major issues – such as which party to back in a general election or policy on Europe.”
Lord Fowler, the chairman of the committee, told the FT: “I didn’t take [his remarks about Sky] entirely seriously.”
But he added that Mr Murdoch had been open and frank in his description of his relationship with his newspapers and with government regulation in the UK.
“There is no question that he feels very strongly about regulation.”
He said Mr Murdoch seemed particularly upset that the Competition Commission had ruled against his holding 17.9 per cent of ITV’s shares when a Communications Act had been passed saying any individual could own up to 20 per cent.
“Mr Murdoch has been very useful in putting one part of the free market case,” Lord Fowler said.
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