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Rupert Murdoch is a controversial media mogul who built a newspaper and tabloid empire that spread from Australia to England to the United States and beyond. He has expanded into television, film, the internet, and the financial news market. News Corp., his holding company, has become synonymous with his name. Murdoch’s media entities have come under scrutiny for espousing political views that seem overwhelmingly reflective of his biases. Despite this, Murdoch has positioned himself to wield astounding influence around the world as his newspapers, magazines, television networks, and websites reach billions of households every day.
Rupert Murdoch (born March 11, 1931) is a controversial multinational media mogul. Australian-born Murdoch built a newspaper and tabloid empire that spread from Australia to England to the United States and beyond; branching out into television, film, the internet, and most recently the financial news market. News Corp., Murdoch’s holding company, has become synonymous with his name.
Young Rupert Murdoch attended Oxford University where he studied politics and economics while writing articles for student newspapers. With his father’s death he inherited a controlling interest in News Limited of Adelaide, Australia, which published The News, a local newspaper.
In 1953 Rupert Murdoch left Oxford to become managing director of News Limited only to find his father left behind a lot of debt. After selling several shares in various newspapers, Rupert Murdoch got back on his feet just three years later with successful ventures that included a television weekly, called TV Week. The extra cash flow allowed Murdoch to borrow money to fund further ventures.
Acquiring more newspapers with circulations across much of Australia, Murdoch also bought The Daily Mirror, a Sydney-based tabloid. In 1964 Murdoch founded Australia’s first national newspaper, The Australian, which he presumably intended to use to gain political respect.
In 1968 Rupert Murdoch expanded into Britain, acquiring control of The News of the World, the most popular English-language newspaper of its time with an international circulation of over 6 million. Murdoch also bought The Sun, an up-and-coming British magazine which he built into a successful tabloid.
In 1973 Rupert Murdoch had set his sights on the United States. By purchasing various newspapers and magazines, he founded the tabloid Star and in 1976 bought the New York Post. Murdoch went so far as to become a citizen of the United States in 1985 to buy the American television station FOX Network, a network that was very popular with young viewers.
Following this success Murdoch launched The Fox News Channel in 1996, a 2003 24-hour cable station designed to compete with CNN. In 34 News Corp. bought a 20% stake in Hughes Electronics, which owns DirecTV, a leading satellite company. But Murdoch’s interest in television and satellite is not specific to the United States.
BSkyB, Britain’s leading satellite company, The National Geographic Channel, The History Channel and Nickelodeon are all partially owned by Rupert Murdoch. Other television stations under the News Corp. banner span Italy, New Zealand, Asia and other countries.
In 2005 Murdoch’s News Corp. bought Intermix Media Incorporated, owner of the hugely popular online social hub, MySpace. Murdoch also acquired control of IGN Entertainment, a media-based video company that owns websites such as AskMen, GameSpy, and RottenTomatoes.
While no one supports Rupert Murdoch’s success, News Corp.-owned entities have come under scrutiny for espousing political views that seem overwhelmingly reflective of Murdoch’s biases. In the United States, Murdoch’s adopted country, the tycoon is an outspoken supporter of the Christian conservative viewpoint and the right-wing Republican party. He has publicly supported Ronald Reagan, Pat Robertson and, most recently, George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. Some believe that the media under Murdoch’s ownership is aimed at promoting a conservative agenda.
In one notable example during the Iraq War in 2003, Australian magazine The Bulletin interviewed Murdoch. The interview revealed that Murdoch is strongly pro-war, citing falling oil prices as the main reason; a stance he also made public the previous week in an interview with America’s Fortune Magazine. In a surprising coincidence, according to an article in Britain’s The Guardian published on February 17, 2003, each of News Corp.’s 175 newspapers around the world also spoke out in favor of the Iraq war.
FOX News Network (FNN), the “fair and balanced” news station with the slogan “we report, you decide” has also come under fire from critics who believe it has a neoconservative and antiliberal bent. Leaked talking point memos that spin bias to tow a conservative party line have caused some critics to reclassify the station as opinion, while others see it as theatre. The backlash has extended to documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald’s inspiration to make, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, which includes interviews with former FOX employees and illustrates what Greenwald and others believe is evidence of intentionally constructed bias at the network.
Among the journalistic concerns, Rupert Murdoch’s 5.6 billion US dollar (USD) 2007 bid to acquire Dow Jones and one of the country’s most respected newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, was met with much concern. But Murdoch seems unstoppable. According to FOX reports in early August 2007 the deal had been accepted and the acquisition of News Corp. will go ahead. Dow Jones also owns many influential financial websites, including MarketWatch.
Rupert Murdoch has positioned himself to wield astounding influence around the world as his newspapers, magazines, television networks and websites reach billions of households every day. With each further acquisition questions arise about the potential implications of this growing monopoly and its impact on business, the economy, politics, market competition and society.
