Rupert Murdoch resigned from the executive boards of Fox and News Corp last September to make way for his son, Lachlan. The Murdoch book was published a week later The Fall by Michael Wolff about a mogul in his twilight years who can barely speak in coherent sentences, whose goals are anyone's guess. Chance? No, says the American author, who is rarely found to be modest. “The focus would be on his age and they want to spare him humiliation. They were concerned about the book.”
Whatever the immediate cause, Murdoch's retirement “literally means nothing.” According to Wolff, he still runs the media conglomerate. But that doesn't mean much either. Because the conclusion from his book is that Murdoch, 92, has actually lost control. Especially about his most important asset: Fox News. The channel has eluded him, actually from the moment channel boss Roger Ailes had to leave in 2016 due to sexual misconduct and Donald Trump gained a far-reaching grip on presenters and the channel's direction. That's one of the many Murdoch ironies, Wolff says. He wanted to get a president elected. “But when that was accomplished, it turned out to be Trump. A man he despises.”
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“I don't see a one-dimensional, negative figure. He is extremely interesting”
Murdoch has also become “a concept” for the people who work directly under him, Wolff writes. There are people who say they know what he wants. This also describes a crucial moment on election night 2020, when Fox News awarded Arizona's electoral votes to Joe Biden early in the evening, to the anger of the Trump camp. According to Wolff, this was preceded by a series of interpretations, in which Murdoch's resentment was decisive. “He can get on my back,” was translated as permission to award Arizona to Biden. Premature, but it was true.
Trump and his supporters forced Fox News to produce increasingly radical TV. Last year, Fox News settled with voting machine manufacturer Dominion for $787 million over conspiracy theories the channel spread about the company in the aftermath of Trump's election loss.
Another paradox that emerges in Wolff's book is the call from progressive forces for Murdoch to intervene at Fox News for heaven's sake. Exactly what he has always been accused of by the same critics: namely that he interferes with the editorial direction of his media in order to pursue his own goals. Wolff calls this the “final irony”, namely that Murdoch “owns the most powerful medium in the US and that 'liberals' are shouting: intervene! Do something! But he can't do anything. He doesn't know how he should do it.”
He could pull the plug.
“Theoretically, yes. But that is unimaginable and probably impossible given shareholder interests. Murdoch is, in a sense, trapped in success. If you want to change Fox's course while sacrificing viewers and profits, it goes against your duty as a director. You cannot go to your shareholders and say: we are now going to do something that will make the company worth half.”
His most important legacy is the radicalization of the Republican party, although this may not have been the intention.
“You can say that for sure. Fox News has run amok and he happily allowed it to happen because it was hugely profitable. The power Fox News has over American politics is unparalleled. Really never shown. But that has very little to do with Rupert Murdoch. And then we're back in the irony department. Because yes, he made Fox News possible. He has encouraged the creation of a conservative channel to break the progressive TV monopoly. But Fox News' success has nothing to do with him. Can you then condemn him for the negative aspects of that success? I don't think so.”
“He doesn't know what to do with TV either. He does have wishes, but he doesn't know how to translate that into successful TV programming. It's not a newspaper. At Murdoch's instigation, Fox News has gotten behind Ron DeSantis [gouverneur van Florida die zich onlangs terugtrok uit de Republikeinse voorverkiezingen, red.]. It didn't mean anything at all.”
You are bothered by the caricatured power attributed to him.
“I don't see a one-dimensional, negative figure. He is extremely interesting. What he has achieved is conflict, even in his failure. His life, which comes to a sad end, also contains a lesson, a message. But that is lost if you only say: Rupert is evil.”
What is that lesson?
“The lesson is that you can amass immense power and that this can eventually grow over your head. It is also a human story. He is now 92. I have spent a lot of time with him. I like him, personally. He is genuinely burdened by the fault lines in his family.”
Murdoch's four eldest children have a defining interest. Lachlan, now the boss, is said to be mainly busy spearfishing in Australia, where he lives. The (slightly) younger son James has turned away from the company and is said to be planning a takeover after the death of his father to make Fox News 'a force for good'. The two eldest daughters would like to wipe away the eternal stain on Murdoch's legacy. Either by divesting the channel or by reforming from within as James envisions. But they hardly talk to each other, the sons certainly not.
In fact, Wolff writes, the family is only connected by the origin of their wealth. “And he suffers from that, as a father. Because he's not that horrible guy Succession”. He's referring to Logan Roy and his twisted family from the HBO series loosely based on the Murdochs. “That man hardly has any human qualities, that is not Rupert Murdoch. On the contrary.”
Michael Wolff: The fall. Prometheus, 360 pages. 25 euros.
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