റുപേര്‍ട്ട്‌ മര്‍ഡോക്ക്‌

റുപേര്‍ട്ട്‌ മര്‍ഡോക്ക്‌

വിക്കിപീഡിയ, ഒരു സ്വതന്ത്ര വിജ്ഞാനകോശം.

കെയ്ത്ത് റുപേര്‍ട്ട് മര്‍ഡോക്ക്

റുപേര്‍ട്ട് മര്‍ഡോക്ക്, ആഗസ്ത് 2006
ജനനം: 11 മാര്‍ച്ച് 1931 (1931-03-11) (പ്രായം 77)
Flag of Australia
മെല്‍ബണ്‍, ആസ്ട്രേലിയ
തൊഴില്‍: ചെയര്‍മാന്‍ , സി.എ.ഒ, ന്യൂസ് കോര്‍പ്പറേഷന്‍
മൊത്തവരുമാനം: $8.8 Billion [1]
ജീവിത പങ്കാളി: 1) Patricia Booker (1956 - 1967), one daughter Prudence;
2) Anna Tõrv (1967 - 1999), one daughter
Elisabeth and two sons Lachlan and James;
3)
Wendi Deng (1999 - present); two daughters Grace and Chloe

കെയ്ത്ത് റുപേര്‍ട്ട് മര്‍ഡോക്ക് (ജനനം:മാര്‍ച്ച് 11, 1931 ) ന്യൂസ് കോര്‍പ്പറേഷന്‍ മാനേജിങ്ങ് ഡയരക്ടറും,ചെയര്‍മാനുമാണ്‌.

鲁伯特·默多克

 

鲁伯特·默多克

维基百科,自由的百科全书

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鲁伯特·默多克Rupert Murdoch1931年3月11日-)是澳大利亚出身的美国著名的新闻媒体经营者,他目前是新闻集团的主要股东

[编辑] 家庭

默多克於1956年与第一任妻子帕特结婚,生下长女普鲁登斯后于1967年离异。同年他与19岁的爱沙尼亚裔天主教徒、《每日镜报》记者安娜结婚,生下女儿伊丽莎白和两个儿子拉克兰、詹姆斯。1999年,与安娜的离婚协议生效仅17天,68岁的默多克迎娶了32岁的邓文迪。接着,邓文迪生下两个女儿格蕾斯和克洛伊。

[编辑] 評價

2007年5月18日,新聞集團旗下報紙紐約郵報》(New York Post)在其八卦新聞版面宣稱,默多克會把任何「不奉承中華人民共和國官員」的報導文章抽稿(包括八卦新聞版面在內),以免「危及默多克在該國的廣播權益」。

维基语录上的相关摘錄:

פֿון װיקיפּעדיע

רופארט מורדאק

פֿון װיקיפּעדיע

שפרינג צו: נאַװיגאציע, זוכן
רופערט מורדאק
רופערט מורדאק

רופערט מורדאק איז א מולטי-ביליאנער וואס איז דער אייגענטומער פון די גרעסטע נייעס אגענטורן.

פון די גרויסע נייעס פירמעס וואס זענען זיינס פאקס ניוס טשאנעל ניו יארק פאסט און פילע נאך.

ער איז א קאנסערוואטיווער, און די אויבנדערמאנטע נייעס אגענטורן זענען טאקע באקאנט אלס מער רעכט געשטימט ווי די אלגעמיינע אמעריקאנער מעדיע.

אלע רופארט מורדאקניוזקארפקאמפאני'ס און וועב סייטס

ניו יארק פאסט • מיי ספעיס • פאקס טעלעוויזשען • די סאן • סקיי ניוז • טיימס

Keith Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch nell'agosto 2006

Keith Rupert Murdoch (Melbourne11 marzo 1931) è un editore, imprenditore e produttore televisivo australiano naturalizzato statunitense.

È proprietario di un vasto gruppo economico nel settore dei mezzi di comunicazione di massa e, come tale, detiene il controllo della News Corporation, una delle maggiori compagnie del settore.

Forbes stima il suo patrimonio in 9,0 miliardi di USD, questo fa di lui il 73esimo uomo più ricco del mondo

Dopo aver iniziato con giornali, magazines e stazioni televisive nella sua Australia, le produzioni di Murdoch si espansero nel Regno Unito e negli Stati Uniti.

Negli ultimi anni, Murdoch è diventato uno dei più importanti imprenditori nel mondo del digitale satellitare, nel campo cinematografico ed in molte altre forme di media.

L'ufficializzazione della sua ultima acquisizione, Dow Jones, con il suo Wall Street Journal avverrà la prossima settimana.

I diari di Hitler [modifica]

Nel 1978 Rupert Murdoch, allora editore del Sunday Times, fu coinvolto nel caso dei famosi falsi diari di Adolf Hitler: tutto iniziò in Germania dove un giornalista, che scriveva per il tabloid Stern, aveva la passione di collezionare cose e oggetti che erano appartenuti al führer; un giorno costui conobbe un certo Kouska, falsario e imbroglione, che aveva l'abilità di imitare alla perfezione quadri di autore e di venderli a prezzi conferibili solo se fossero stati degli autentici capolavori. Costui aveva anche un altro "talento": quello di imitare alla perfezione la grafia altrui. Egli fece intendere al giornalista dello Stern di essere in possesso di alcuni diari che appartennero ad Adolf Hitler. Si misero d'accordo per un prezzo di molte migliaia di marchi a diario. Kouska prendeva tempo per scrivere dicendo che questi erano separati in varie parti "segrete" della Germania. All'inizio questi diari erano solo 5 o 6, successivamente iniziarono a moltiplicarsi. Il giornalista da semplice passione aveva intenzione di trasformare in scoop questa "scoperta" facendo spendere al giornale il restante capitale. Vennero convocati esperti che verificassero l'autenticità dei diari; ma, ormai, che fossero veri o falsi, non aveva più alcuna importanza: la macchina era già innescata.

In questo punto entrò in gioco Rupert Murdoch che allora era solo l'editore del Sunday Times. Fiutando l'affare, anche lui si era lanciato nella pubblicazione dei diari, senza aspettare il responso di un noto decano di qualche nota università da lui nominato.

Quando, successivamente, si accorsero che i diari erano falsi, sia lo Stern che il Sunday Times dovettero retrocedere rovinosamente.

Vita privata [modifica]

Rupert Murdoch è stato sposato 3 volte: la prima dal 1956 al 1967 con Patricia Booker, con cui ha avuto la figlia Prudence Murdoch, 1999 è sposato con Wendi Deng (nata nel 1968) da cui ha avuto le figlie Grace e Chloe.

Giornali e Riviste [modifica]

Australia [modifica]

Giornali [modifica]

  • The Australian
  • The Weekend Australian
  • The Courier-Mail
  • The Sunday Mail
  • The Cairns Post
  • The Gold Coast Bulletin
  • The Townsville Bulletin
  • The Daily Telegraph
  • The Sunday Telegraph
  • The Herald Sun
  • The Sunday Herald Sun
  • The Weekly Times
  • MX
  • The Geelong Advertiser
  • The Advertiser
  • The Sunday Mail
  • Messenger Newspapers
  • The Sunday Times
  • The Mercury
  • The Sunday Tasmanian
  • Northern Territory News
  • The Sunday Territorian
  • The Tablelands Advertiser
  • The Tablelander

Riviste [modifica]

  • Alpha Magazine
  • Australian Country Style
  • Australian Golf Digest
  • Australian Good Taste
  • Big League
  • BCME
  • Delicious
  • Donna Hay
  • Fast Fours
  • GQ
  • Gardening Australia
  • InsideOut (Aust)
  • Lifestyle Pools
  • Live to Ride
  • Notebook:
  • Overlander 4WD
  • Modern Boating
  • Modern Fishing
  • Parents
  • Pure Health
  • Super Food Ideas
  • Truck Australia
  • Truckin' Life
  • twowheels
  • twowheels scooter
  • Vogue (Australia)
  • Vogue Entertaining & Travel
  • Vogue Living

Gran Bretagna [modifica]


Stati Uniti [modifica]

Isole Fiji [modifica]

  • Fiji Times
  • Nai Lalakai
  • Shanti Dut

Aziende [modifica]

Piattaforme Televisive Satellitari [modifica]

Gran Bretagna [modifica]

Italia [modifica]

Stati Uniti [modifica]

Messico [modifica]

Australia [modifica]

Nuova Zelanda [modifica]

Brasile [modifica]

Asia [modifica]

Hong Kong [modifica]

Piattaforme Televisive Via Cavo [modifica]

Reti televisive [modifica]

Case Editrici [modifica]

Voci correlate [modifica]

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch

.

Rupert Murdoch en août 2006.
Rupert Murdoch en août 2006.

Keith Rupert Murdoch (né le 11 mars 1931 à Melbourne, Australie) est un homme d'affaires anglo-australo-américain, actionnaire majoritaire de News Corporation, l'un des plus grands groupes médiatiques du monde. 88ème fortune mondiale en 2006.

Biographie [modifier]

Murdoch commença sa carrière en Australie à Melbourne, où il succéda à son père le chevalier Sir Keith Murdoch à la tête d'un journal local. Par la suite, son empire grandit sans arrêt. En 1985, il devient citoyen des États-Unis (la législation de l'époque ne permettait qu'aux citoyens américains de posséder une station de télévision).

Murdoch possède un véritable empire médiatique d'ampleur globale, comprenant de nombreux sites internet - MySpace, IGN, Askmen, Rotten Tomatoes - un grand nombre de journaux, dont le New York Post aux États-Unis et The Times au Royaume-Uni. Il possède également un réseau de télévision incluant la chaîne Fox News.

De nombreuses critiques ont été émises à propos de la ligne éditoriale de ces journaux et ces chaines de télévision. Entre autre par l'intermédiaire d'un film documentaire de Robert Greenwald intitulé "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" [1]. Ainsi que le professeur Roy Greenslade, qui par une tribune dans le journal anglais Guardian Unlimited, souligna que les 175 journaux de Murdoch à travers le monde ont soutenu l'invasion de l'Irak par les Etats-Unis avec des titres provocateurs.[2]

Fin juillet 2007, Rupert Murdoch rachète le Wall Street Journal pour 5 milliards de dollars US.

Propriétaire du site communautaire MySpace, Rupert Murdoch l'a acquis durant l'été 2005 contre 580 millions de dollars. Le site est maintenant estimé à 12,3 milliards de dollars - source "L'Expansion" [3].

Il est reconnu pour ses œuvres charitables et est récipiendaire de l'Ordre de Saint-Grégoire. [1]. La division films (20th Century Fox qui lui appartient également) a vu son profit augmenter de 12% grâce aux succès du deuxième épisode de l'Âge de glace mais aussi du film Borat.[réf. nécessaire]

Journaux [modifier]

Australie
Royaume Uni
États-Unis

Liens externes [modifier]

Sources [modifier]

ルパート・マードック

ルパート・マードック

キース・ルパート・マードック

2006年8月のマードック
生年: 1931年3月11日(77歳)
オーストラリアの旗 オーストラリアメルボルン
職業: ニューズ・コーポレーション会長CEO
資産: $77億ドル [1]
配偶者: 1) パトリシア・ブッカー Patricia Booker (1956 - 1967), 娘のPrudence;
2) Anna Tõrv (1967 - 1999), 娘1人エリザベス (Elisabeth) と息子2人ラクラン (Lachlan)ジェームス (James) ;
3) ウェンディ・デン (Wendi Deng) (1999 - present); 娘2人グレース(Grace)とクロエ(Chloe)

ルパート・マードック(Rupert Murdoch、本名Keith Rupert Murdoch、1931年3月11日 - )は、メディア大手のニューズ・コーポレーションを所有することから世界的なメディア王と呼ばれる人物である。オーストラリア生まれで長年オーストラリアを拠点としていたが、1986年にアメリカでFOXテレビを創設した際に放送法の関係でアメリカに帰化し、アメリカ合衆国国民となっている。

目次

[非表示]

[編集] 経歴

彼のメディアグループの拡大の経緯については、ニューズ・コーポレーションも参照

オーストラリアビクトリア州メルボルンに、1931年に生まれる。ジャーナリストであった父のキース・マードック伯爵 (Sir Keith Murdoch) はオーストラリアの名門社会の一員で、第一次世界大戦での報道で活躍し、当時のオーストラリア首相ビリー・ヒューズの個人的なアドバイザーでもあった。またメルボルンの新聞「ザ・ヘラルド」などを所有し、オーストラリア一政治的影響力の強い新聞社社長・メディア経営者となった。キースは1928年にエリザベス・ジョイ・グリーン(後のエリザベス・マードック (Elisabeth Murdoch) と結婚し、息子ルパートと三人の妹をもうけた。キースはルパートの少年時代の不出来さに不満を持っており、息子が自分のあとを継ぐことを絶望視していた。ルパートは父には反抗的であったが、父の新聞王としての生き方に強い影響を受けており、その人生を模倣しようとしてきたといえる。母エリザベスは健在で、ルパートに今でも強い影響を持つ。

ルパートはメルボルン郊外のジーロングにある名門校ジーロング・グラマー・スクール (Geelong Grammar School) で学び、オックスフォード大学ウースター・カレッジ (Worcester College) へ進学し、学生新聞「チャーウェル(Cherwell)」で広告を販売していた。

1952年、父キースの急死によりルパートは学業半ばでオーストラリアに戻り、父の跡を継いでメディアグループのオーナーになろうとしたが、相続税を払った後にはザ・ヘラルドなどの主要な事業は残っておらず、アデレードの新聞「ザ・ニューズ (The News) 」などがかろうじてルパートの手元に残った。ザ・ニューズの社長となったルパートは、アデレード近くで起きた少女殺人事件で逮捕されたアボリジニマックス・スチュワート (Max Stuart) の冤罪と死刑反対を主張し大キャンペーンを行った。結果スチュワートは冤罪が認められ釈放され、ルパートは大いに名を上げたが、このキャンペーンの実際の功労者は編集長のローハン・リヴェットであった。

マードックはザ・ニューズ紙をもとに持株会社ニューズ・リミテッドを創立し、オーストラリア各地の新聞を買収して1970年代にはオーストラリア有数のメディア・グループへと成長させた。1964年にはオーストラリア初の全国紙「ジ・オーストラリアン」を発行し、政治的影響力も高めている。また1969年ロンドンザ・サン買収をはじめ、1970年代には英米各地の新聞を次々買収し、1979年に現在の持株会社、ニューズ・コーポレーションを設立した。

1980年代にはイギリスの名門紙タイムズ、アメリカの映画会社20世紀フォックスの買収、アメリカでのテレビ・ネットワークFOXの設立など事業を拡大し、その経済力・政治的影響力は世界規模に拡大している。1987年にはかつて父が所有し本拠としていたヘラルド・アンド・ウィークリー・タイムズ社 (The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd) の買収についに成功し、父のメディア王国を取り戻した。

1970年代半ばまでは、ルパート・マードックのグループ各紙はオーストラリア労働党イギリス労働党支持だったが、その後はオーストラリア自由党イギリス保守党支持に回る。政治的には保守を代表しているとされる。

[編集] 人物

マードックはニューズ・コーポレーションの株主、代表取締役と言う立場でテレビ新聞映画雑誌音楽産業、インターネットなどを中心とした世界に散らばるメディア企業を率いている。一般的に傘下のメディア企業が親米・親イスラエルなどの姿勢をとり、これまでロナルド・レーガンマーガレット・サッチャージョージ・ウォーカー・ブッシュといった政治家を支持してきたため、マードック本人も保守主義者だと言われている。

しかし、彼は1975年までは左派であった。その後は保守に転向する。但し、イギリスでは労働党のブレアが政権に就くと、これまでの保守党支持を翻して労働党支持を表明したり、オーストラリアでも労働党党首を支持しており、チベット亡命政府指導者のダライ・ラマ14世を攻撃するなど親中派であること、最近ではブッシュの支持率の低迷からヒラリー・クリントン支持に回るなど、風見鶏的な姿勢も目に付く。本人は自分自身を「リバタリアニズムの信奉者」だとしている[1]

自身が所有するFOXネットワークの人気番組で、様々な米英の有名人が本人役でゲスト出演する「ザ・シンプソンズ」においては「わしが世界征服を企む悪のメディア王、ルパート・マードックじゃ~!」[要出典][2]というセリフを喋った事もあり、ユーモアには一定の理解を示す人物(シンプソンズのスタッフをはじめ、FOXネットワーク等の関係者には民主党支持のリベラル派で反マードックを表明する者も少なくないにもかかわらず、である)[要出典]

[編集] 私生活

彼はこれまでに3回結婚している。1956年にパトリシア・ブッカーと結婚し一女(プルーデンス・マードック)をもうけたが1967年に離婚した。この結婚に関しては彼は多くを述べていない。同年、社員でエストニア移民出身の若い女性、アンナ・トルフと結婚し、エリザベス(1968年生まれ)、ラクラン(1971年生まれ)、ジェームズ(1972年生まれ)の二男一女をもうけている。1969年、すでにメディア王となりイギリスに乗り込んでいた彼の資産を狙ってアンナ夫人の誘拐が企てられたが、誘拐犯はまちがえて重役のアリック・マッケイの夫人マリエルを誘拐し殺害してしまった。[2] [3]

アンナ夫人とは1999年に離婚し17億ドルにのぼる慰謝料を支払った。その半月後、当時70歳のマードックは当時30歳のウェンディ・デン (Wendi Deng) (鄧文迪、共産党政権下の1969年徐州生まれ、広州で育ち米国に留学したあと香港のスターテレビの副社長を務めていた)と結婚している。ウェンディーとの間にはグレース(2001年生まれ)とクロエ(2003年生まれ)の二女が生まれている。

エリザベス、ラクラン、ジェームズの三人はそれぞれニューズ・コーポレーション内の重役となり父の後継者の座を争ったが、次男ジェームズを除く二人はすでにグループを離れ独自のビジネスを進めており、ジェームズが後継者とみなされている。エリザベスは一度離婚し、英米を中心に活動するメディアグループ「フロイド・コミュニケーションズ」の創設者でジークムント・フロイトの曾孫にあたるメディア界の神童・マシュー・フロイト (Matthew Freud) (1963年生まれ)と結婚している。

[編集] 脚注

  1. ^ http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rupert_Murdoch#Murdoch.27s_politics
  2. ^ 原語ではRupert Murdoch, the billionaire tyrant.

[編集] 外部リンク

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch

Vikipedi, özgür ansiklopedi

Git ve: kullan, ara
Rupert Murdoch 1937 yılında babası Keith ve annesi Elisabeth Murdoch ve kız kardeşi ile İngiltere'ye deniz yolculuğunda Melbourne limanından ayrılırken
Rupert Murdoch 1937 yılında babası Keith ve annesi Elisabeth Murdoch ve kız kardeşi ile İngiltere'ye deniz yolculuğunda Melbourne limanından ayrılırken

Keith Rupert Murdoch (d. 11 Mart 1931); New York City, ABD merkezli News Corporation şirketinin Avustralyalı medya yöneticisi ve hissedarı. Ülkesi Avustralya'da gazeteler, dergiler ve televizyonlarla çalışma hayatına başlayan Murdoch, şirketini İngiliz ve Amerikan medyasına doğru genişletmiş ve dünyanın en önemli ve zengin medya patronlarından biri olmuştur. Dünyanın en zenginleri (2007) listesinde 9 milyar dolarlık servetiyle 73. sırada bulunmaktadır.

Eleştiri ve Tartışmalar [değiştir]

Rupert Murdoch'a ait Fox News Channel, politik açıdan muhafazakâr olmasıyla, muhafazakâr politikacıları ve görüşleri savunmasıyla eleştirilir. Haber kanalı 2004 tarihli, yapımı ve yönetimi Robert Greenwald'a ait olan Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism adlı belgeselde de ağır eleştirilere uğrar. Profesör Roy Greenslade'in Guardian Unlimited için yazdığı bir makalede Murdoch'ın medya imparatorluğuna ait 175 gazetenin tamamının, Irak savaşını savunan haberler yaptığına işaret edilir.[1]


רופרט מרדוק

רופרט מרדוק

מתוך ויקיפדיה, האנציקלופדיה החופשית

קפיצה אל: ניווט, חיפוש
רופרט מרדוק
רופרט מרדוק
תאריך לידה 11 במרץ 1931 (גיל 76)
תפקידים בולטים
  • יושב ראש ומנכ"ל חברת ניוז קורפ

ויליאם רופרט מרדוק (נולד ב-11 במרץ 1931) הוא מיליארדר אוסטרלי בעל השליטה בחברת המדיה הענקית ניוז קורפ שלה שליטה רבה בענף התקשורת.

מרדוק נולד ב-11 במרץ 1931 במלבורן, אוסטרליה, לאליזבת ולסר קית' מרדוק. לאחר מות אביו בשנת 1953, ירש מרדוק את העיתון שהיה בבעלותו של אביו. לאחר מכן, גם רכש רופרט מרדוק כמה עיתונים. הוא גם יסד את העיתון המפורסם הסאן. כמו כן רכש את עיתון הניו יורק פוסט, שהיה העיתון ה-84 שרכש.

רופרט מרדוק גם יסד את רשת פוקס האמריקנית.

רופרט מרדוק אוחז באמצעות חברת הבת של ניוז קורפ, ניוז קורפ אירופה 9% ממניות ערוץ 10.

הונו הוערך על ידי מגזין פורבס (2007) כעומד על כ-9 מיליארד דולר מה שם אותו במקום ה-73 בין עשירי העולם.

ערך זה הוא קצרמר בנושא אישים. אתם מוזמנים לתרום לוויקיפדיה ולהרחיב אותו.

Keith Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch (* 11. März 1931 in Melbourne) ist ein australischer Medienunternehmer. Murdoch besitzt die australische und US-amerikanische Staatsbürgerschaft.

Rupert Murdoch (2006)
Rupert Murdoch (2006)

Inhaltsverzeichnis

[Verbergen]

Leben [Bearbeiten]

Der Sohn von Keith Murdoch und Dame Elisabeth Murdoch sr., geb. Greene, besuchte das private Geelong College in Australien und studierte anschließend an der Oxford University in England. Nach dem plötzlichen Tod seines Vaters 1952 übernahm er die Führung im väterlichen Medienkonzern, der damals aus zwei Zeitungen in Adelaide (unter anderem The News) und einem Radiosender bestand. Es folgten zahlreiche Übernahmen, Beteiligungen und Neugründungen von Zeitungs- und Buchverlagen, Radio- und Fernsehsendern, sowie Filmstudios, zunächst in Australien, dann in Großbritannien und anschließend in den USA.

Rupert Murdoch ist Hauptaktionär und leitender Vorstand der News Corporation, einen weltweit agierenden Medienkonzern, der zahlreiche Beteiligungen an Film- und Fernsehunternehmen, Zeitungs- und Buchverlagen und sogar eine Baseball-Mannschaft (Los Angeles Dodgers) besitzt. Die Herzstücke dieses Medienimperiums sind u.a. das Hollywood-Film Studio 20th Century Fox und das US-amerikanische TV-Network Fox Television, das der Australier Murdoch 1986 erst nach erfolgreicher Bemühung um die US-Staatsbürgerschaft ins Leben rufen konnte. 1989 fasste er mit der Gründung von Sky Television Fuß im europäischen Medienmarkt. Im asiatischen Markt ist Murdoch mit STAR TV vertreten, mit mehr als 100 Millionen Zuschauern täglich.

Vermögen [Bearbeiten]

Murdoch befindet sich derzeit auf dem vierten Platz in der Rangliste der kommerziell erfolgreichsten Medienunternehmer des Forbes Magazine.[1] Es wird geschätzt, dass heute zirka 2 %[2][3] der global vertriebenen Medien unter seinem Einfluss stehen.

Kritik [Bearbeiten]

Kritikern zufolge nutzt Rupert Murdoch die ihm gehörenden Medien zur Verbreitung streng konservativer Weltanschauungsmuster, jedoch stützten seine Medien nach dem Niedergang der Konservativen in Großbritannien den Kurs der Regierung Blair. Unter anderem wird ihm vorgeworfen, dass Fox TV und etwa 175 Zeitungen der News Corporation im Vorfeld des Irak-Krieges eine euroskeptische und anti-französische Grundhaltung eingenommen hätten.

Seine Zeitungen „The Sun“ und „News of the World“ in Großbritannien sind für eine offen-antieuropäische und insbesondere auch anti-deutsche Haltung bekannt (German Bashing). Fox TV wird von Kritikern immer wieder überzogener Patriotismus und einseitige Parteinahme zugunsten der Regierung Bush vorgeworfen.

Die Site www.foxattacks.com wirft Murdoch ausserdem die Manipulation des US-Präsidentschaftswahlkampfes zu Ungunsten Barack Obamas vor.

Die Kritik an Murdoch's Medienmacht wurde in letzter Zeit immer ausgeprägter. Unter anderem seit der Veröffentlichung des FOX- und Murdoch-kritischen Skandalfilmes "outfoxed" (Link zur Website unten), in dem unter anderem ein Ex-FOXNEWS-Mitarbeiter aufgedeckt hat, dass der FOX-News-Redaktion täglich ein Memo der Senderleitung gereicht wurde, welches die Themen beinhaltete, die an diesem Tag behandelt werden sollten. Der Vorwurf des parteiischen und unsachlichen Journalismus ergänzte sich durch den Vorwurf, die Bush-Regierung intensiv unterstützt zu haben und Neuigkeiten über beispielsweise den Irakkrieg immer verschleiert wiedergegeben zu haben. Es sei zum Beispiel nach jeder Meldung über den Tod von US-Soldaten darauf hingewiesen worden, dass die US-Armee im Irak einen wichtigen Auftrag erfüllen müsse, indem sie den internationalen Terrorismus bekämpfe und den grausamen Anschlag auf das World Trade Center am 11. September 2001 vergelten bzw. weiteren terroristischen Tätigkeiten vorbeugen müsse. Einer Umfrage zu Folge war sich ein großer Prozentsatz der FOX-Zuschauer sicher, dass der Irak wirklich Massenvernichtungswaffen besessen hat. Auch in anderen Bereichen, seien es politische, wirtschaftliche oder gesellschaftliche, würde sich Murdoch vermehrt einmischen und die Nachrichten zu seinen Gunsten beeinflussen.

Quellen und externe Verlinkungen:

Aktuelles [Bearbeiten]

Kürzlich äußerte Murdoch in einem Interview, dass er nicht daran denke, sich zur Ruhe zu setzen.

Murdoch begann erst spät an das Online-Geschäft zu glauben und gehört nun im hohen Alter zu seinen größten Protagonisten. Im Jahr 2005 kaufte Murdoch MySpace. In einer Rede am 13. März 2006 in der Londoner Stationers Hall fand er erstaunliche Worte über die Zukunft der Medien: "Power is moving away from the old elite of our industry - the editors, the chief executives and, let's face it, the proprietors."

Am 1. August 2007 konnte Murdoch zudem nach einer monatelangen Verhandlungsschlacht die Übernahme des bekannten US-Verlages Dow Jones für sich verbuchen, zu dem unter anderem das weltweit bekannte Wall Street Journal gehört.

Am 7. Dezember 2007 wurde bekannt, dass Murdochs Sohn James den Chefposten des Medienimperiums seines Vaters in Europa und Asien übernimmt.

Privates [Bearbeiten]

Keith Rupert Murdoch ist in dritter Ehe verheiratet. Seine erste Ehe ging er mit Patricia Booker (1956-1960) ein, mit der er eine Tochter namens Prudence (* 1958) hat. Aus der zweiten Ehe mit Anna Torv (1967-1999) gingen drei Kinder hervor: Elisabeth (* 1968, verheiratet mit Matthew Freud, Enkel von Sigmund Freud), James (* 1972) und Lachlan Keith (* 1971). Diese Ehe endete nach 32 Jahren vor Gericht und Anna wurden 1,7 Milliarden Dollar zugesprochen - das meiste in Aktien, 110 Millionen als Bargeld.

Seine dritte Ehe ging er mit Wendi Deng 1999 ein. Mit ihr hat Murdoch bisher zwei Kinder: Grace Helen (* November 2001) und Chloe (* Juli 2005).

Zeitungen (Auszug) [Bearbeiten]

Australien [Bearbeiten]

Großbritannien [Bearbeiten]

USA [Bearbeiten]

Fernsehen [Bearbeiten]

USA [Bearbeiten]

Australien [Bearbeiten]

Europa [Bearbeiten]

Asien [Bearbeiten]

weltweit [Bearbeiten]

weitere Sender [Bearbeiten]

Filmstudios [Bearbeiten]

USA [Bearbeiten]

Australien [Bearbeiten]

WWW [Bearbeiten]

Quellen [Bearbeiten]

  1. http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_The-400-Richest-Americans-Media-Entertainment_8Rank.html
  2. News Corp. (2006), Annual Report 2006, S.37
  3. ITU Workshop on Ubiquitous Network Societies (2005), The Future of TV Broadcasting in Ubiquitous Network Societies (UNS)

Weblinks [Bearbeiten]

 

روپرت مرداک

روپرت مرداک

روپرت مرداک
روپرت مرداک

کیث روپرت مرداک (به انگلیسی: Keith Rupert Murdoch) (یا مرداخ یا مردوخ)، سرمایه‌دار یهودی‌الاصل آمریکایی-استرالیایی و صاحب شرکت نیوز کورپریشن است.

[ویرایش] زندگی

کیث روپرت در ۱۱ مارس سال ۱۹۳۱ (میلادی) در ملبورن استرالیا به دنیا آمد. پدرش، سرکیث مرداک ناشر یک روزنامه و مادرش یک یهودی ارتدکس بود. اما مرداک هیچ وقت چنین مطالبی را در داستان زندگی خود ابراز نکرد[۱].

پدر او با الیزابت جوی گرین، دختر روپرت گرین در سال ۱۹۲۸ (میلادی) ازدواج کرد که حاصل آن یک پسر بنام کیث روپرت و ۳ دختر بود. کیث روپرت بعدها تصمیم می‌گیرد که از نام اول پدربزرگ مادری اش که یهودی بود استفاده کند.

او از همان ایام کودکی با روزنامه‌نگاری آشنا شد. در سن ۱۰ سالگی به مدرسه رفت و پس از اتمام دوره تحصیل، کار روزنامه‌نگاری را در مجله‌های مدرسه‌ای شروع کرد.

سپس برای ادامه تحصیل به انگلیس رفت و در دانشگاه آکسفورد مدرک لیسانس را در رشته هنر اخذ کرد. در آن دوران با روزنامه انگلیسی دیلی اکسپرس همکاری می‌کرد.

[ویرایش] منابع

  1. روزنامه جام جم، ۲۶/۹/۸۲، ص.۹

[ویرایش] جُستار‌های وابسته

روبرت مردوخ

روبرت مردوخ

روبرت مردوخ
روبرت مردوخ

امبراطور الاعلام العالمي

روبرت مردوخ، ولد في ملبورن بأستراليا عام 1931 من اب وام اسكوتلنديين. يتحكم بمجموعة شايرمان وشايرهولدر ورئيس مجلس إدارة المجموعة الاعلامية الاكبر News corporation. ليس صحيحا ما يشاع عن ان مردوخ يهودي، فلا هو عضو في ايباك ولا يهودي الديانة، لكنه من أهم دعائم إسرائيل الاعلامية في العالم.


فهرس

[إخفاء]

[تحرير] مسيرته المهنية

بدأ مردوخ مسيرته في الصحف المحلية والتلفزيونات الاسترالية ثم ما لبث ان تمدد الوحش المالي إلى بريطانيا واميركا حيث بسط سيطرته على صناعة الافلام والاعلام الفضائي وحتى شبكات الانترنت. بعد ان أحكم سيطرته على السوق الإعلامية في أستراليا قام بتوسيع نشاطه، وتحول عام 1969 إلى بريطانيا؛ حيث اشترى أولا صحيفة “News of the world” الأسبوعية التي كان يصل حجم توزيعها إلى 6.2 ملايين نسخة، ثم قام بتغيير سياستها التحريرية اعتمادًا على الموضوعات الجنسية، والتركيز على العناوين ذات الحجم الكبير. بعد عدة أسابيع اشترى صحيفة “The Sun” بنصف مليون جنيه إسترليني بعد أن شارفت على الإفلاس؛ فخفض عدد العاملين بها، ثم ما لبث ان قلب سياستها التحريرية رأسًا على عقب، واستحدث في الصحيفة ركناً يومياً ثابتًا لصورة فتاة عارية، وركّز على أخبار الفضائح وما يحدث في المجتمع المخملي؛ فارتفعت مبيعات الصحيفتين في وقت قصير ليحقق مردوخ أرباح طائلة و يسيطر على سوق الإعلام البريطاني.

[تحرير] النقلة الكبرى: مردوخ امبراطوراً

اما النقلة الكبرى ضمن سيطرته على الرأي العام البريطاني فكانت مع مرور مجموعة صحف “The Times” -أعرق الصحف البريطانية- بأزمة مالية حادة، واعرض المستثمرون عن إنقاذها تخوفا من الغموض الذي يلفّ مستقبلها بعد تراجع مبيعاتها بشكل ملحوظ، ووقوع مشاكل مع عمال الطباعة والنقابات. إلا أن هذه المخاوف لم تمنع مردوخ من التركيز على المجموعة؛ لما تمثله من أهمية في عالم الصحافة وثقل في دنيا السياسة، ويبدو أنه كان قد حضّر خطة جديدة لتحويل خسارتها إلى أرباح، فخاض في سبيل ذلك معارك استخدم فيها كافة أسلحته، حتى حظي بتأييد رئيسة الوزراء البريطانية آنذاك "مارجريت تاتشر" التي وافقت له بصفة استثنائية على شراء المجموعة، بالرغم من أن قانون الاحتكارات البريطاني يمنع هيمنة شخص واحد على كل هذا العدد من الصحف، ومع ذلك يسيطر مردوخ على 40% من الصحافة البريطانية.

كما قلص مردوخ عدد العاملين في مجموعة The Times، وواجه نقابة عمال الطباعة بحركة استفزازية؛ حيث قام بطرد آلاف العمال دون سابق إنذار، متنكرا بذلك لبعض الأفكار اليسارية التي أُعجب بها في مطلع الخمسينيات وأشاد بها كثيرا، ولكنه على غير المعتاد حافظ على الطابع المحافظ للصحيفة وملحقاتها.

قام مردوخ بالانتقال إلى اميركا عام 1973 حيث قام بالسيطرة على صحيفة سان انطونيو اكسبرس ومن ثم اسس صحيفة ستار وسوبرماركت تابلويد. لكن خطوته الاكبر كانت في عام 1976 بالسيطرة على صحيفة نيو يورك بوست. عام 1982 اصبح مردوخ مواطنا اميركيا ما سمح له بالاستثمار في محطات التلفزة. وفي 1987 اشترى في استراليا صحيفتي الهيرالد والويكلي تايمز. و في عام 1991 وقعت شركة مردوخ الاسترالية في ازمة مديونية فقام ببيع بعض الجرائد الاميركية التي اسسها منتصف الثمانينات، و كانت معظم هذه الخسائر سببها الشبكة الفضائية الاعلامية سكاي (sky television ) التي سببت الكثير من الخسائر في بدايتها ما دفع مردوخ إلى الضغط عبر علاقاته على مؤسسة البث الفضائي البريطانية لقبول الاندماج مع مؤسسته فتمت عملية الاندماج في ظل مؤسسة جديدة سمّيت BskyB ومنذ ذلك الوقت تسيطر هذه الشركة على التجارة التلفزيونية البريطانية: British pay-tv marke

بعد هذه الخطوة و استيلائه على شبكة البرامج الأرضية التلفزيونية المدفوعة BskyB استطاع احتكار حق بث ونقل مباريات الدوري الممتاز لكرة القدم الانكليزية، وبيع نسبة كبيرة من الإعلانات؛ فأدى ذلك إلى زيادة عدد المشتركين في الشبكة بنسبة مليون مشاهد، ثم أقدم على خطوة جريئة لجذب أكبر عدد من المشاركين حين ابتكر فكرة توزيع أجهزة التشفير مجانًا على المشتركين الجدد، وقفز بعددهم إلى أرقام لم تكن الشركة تحلم بها من قبل، فوصل عدد المشتركين إلى 7 ملايين.

[تحرير] نفوذ مردوخ، ودخوله السوق الشرقي

يملك الامبراطور الاعلامي مردوخ عدة صحف محافظة مثل النيويورك بوست الاميركية والتايمز والصن الانجليزية ويسيطر على شبكة فوكس نيوز المتطرفة وينزع مردوخ بحسب شهادته الخاصة إلى اتجاه موال لاسرائيل وداعم لها ومن جهة اخرى معاد لفرنسا ومحارب لنفوذها وهو ما يلاحظ في حملات وسائله الاعلامية على فرنسا.

دخل مردوخ السوق الاعلامي العربي صراحة وشريكاً عبر استثماره في روتانا او ما برر بأنه ‘‘نقاش’’ لتملك حصة. شركة روتانا تعتبر القوة الإعلامية المهيمنة في الشرق الأوسط, وتمتلك ست قنوات تلفزيونية وذراعا لإنتاج الأفلام . وبالرغم من أنها قد انطلقت خلال السنتين الماضيتين إلا أنها مع هذا تستحوذ على 50 في المائة من إجمالي إنتاج الأفلام العربية, مع العلم أنها أنتجت نحو 22 فيلماً في 2005.. وفي ظل عدم اعتبار العالم العربي والخليج تحديداً سوقا استهلاكيا معوضاً لكلفة الفن (ماديا).

مؤخرا اشترى محطة “تي. جي. آر. تي” التلفزيونية التركية الخاصة بعد مساومات استمرت أكثر من عام، ويسعى مردوخ إلى شراء صحيفة “تركيا” ووكالة “اخلاص” للأنباء اللتين يملكهما رجل الأعمال التركي أنور اوران في مسعى يهدف التصدي للشعور المعادي ل “إسرائيل” وأمريكا وكسب تركيا من جديد بعد تراجع صورة الحليفين في الشارع التركي كما يصنف على انه محاولة للدخول إلى العقل الشرقي عبر اعلامه المخترق اصلا. والذي يمتلك مردوخ تأثيرا كبيرا على أهم فضائياته عبر علاقاته الشخصية مع امراء الخليج ونفوذه الاخباري كونه من مصادر تلقيم الاخبار. دعم مردوخ للمحافظين الجدد تجلى في موقف وسائله الاعلامية الداعم لحرب العراق والذي استعمل في وقتها مردوخ نفوذه الاعلامي لتأليب الرأي العام ضد العراق وانشاء ارضية شعبية لخطط بوش ووزارة دفاعه.

[تحرير] العلاقة مع اسرائيل

تعتبر مجموعة مردوخ الإعلامية واحدة من 3 مؤسسات تحرص جمعية الصداقة الأمريكية الإسرائيلية على شكرها؛ لدعمها الدولة العبرية إعلاميا واستثماريا؛ فمجموعة مردوخ تستثمر في الشرق الأوسط داخل إسرائيل فقط من خلال شركة NDS News Datacom التي تعمل في مجال التكنولوجيا الرقمية والاتصالات عبر الأقمار الاصطناعية، اما هذا الدعم فتجلى في حملة التغطية والدعم والتشجيع لاسرائيل في حربها الاخيرة ضد لبنان

في هذا الرابط مثلا لقاء على فضائية السكاي نيوز مع المعارض جورج جالاوي الذي يعاير المذيعة بفكر قناتها وبكونها موظفة عند مردوخ. مما جاء في مقابلة جالاوي: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249JaIaubVw

[تحرير] الامبراطور!

انشأ مردوخ اقوى امبراطوريات العالم الاعلامية، امبراطورية تتسع بشكل دائم مؤمنة له موطئ قدم اعلامي وثقافي في كل بقعة من بقاع الارض. وفي خضم متابعته لدعم شركته العالمية يتجه مردوخ الآن إلى السيطرة على الاعلام الصيني واقتحام سوره التجاري. اذ يملك قناة phoenix الناطقة بالصينية والتي انتقدت حلف شمال الأطلسي بلا هوادة بعد قصف طائراته لمقر السفارة الصينية في بلغراد أثناء التدخل العسكري في إقليم كوسوفو؛ وذلك إرضاء للسلطات الصينية وحفاظا على مصالحه، حتى إن السفارة البريطانية في بكين أرسلت بمذكرة إلى الخارجية البريطانية احتجاجا على تغطية الصحف التي يملكها مردوخ للحدث. كما أمر بمنع نشر كتاب "الغرب والشرق" الذي ينتقد السياسة الشيوعية في الصين من ذات المنطلق ، دون الالتفات إلى "حرية الرأي والفكر"، على الرغم من أن الكتاب يحتوي –حسب النقاد– على ملاحظات بنّاءة تفيد التجربة الصينية، وتعرض الجوانب الجيدة فيها، وتقترح تعديلات على السلبيات الملحوظة. كما أمر بمنع طباعة السيرة الذاتية للسير "كريس باتن" آخر حاكم بريطاني لهونغ كونغ.

[تحرير] سياسة مردوخ المهنية

أن مردوخ يتعامل مع الأحداث والأخبار كبضاعة يصار إلى تسييسها وتسويقها بشكل مؤثر ومربح في آن واحد، مهما كان الثمن الأخلاقي، وهو ما استخدمه في كثير من المواقف؛ مما يظهر أن الأخلاق، المبادئ والمثل التي نادى بها في مطلع حياته العملية كانت حبرا على ورق، ولا تتعدى كونها سلاحًا واجه به خصومه، ثم أولاها ظهره بعد أن قويت شوكته.

يؤمن مردوخ بالانترنت كلغة العالم القادمة وبالتكنولوجيا الجديدة و عصر السرعة. كما يعتبر من اقوى الممهدين للعولمة ولكسر الحدود الحضارية والثقافية بهدف التغلغل في كبد المجتمعات تمهيدا ل’’عصرنتها‘‘ ويقدم مصالحه الشخصية والعقائدية على كل ما سواها. كما و يعتبر وفيا لانتمائه اليميني ولقناعاته المتماهية مع محافظي الادارات الاميركية.

Keith Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, August 2006
Born

11 March 1931 (1931-03-11) (age 77)
Melbourne, Australia

Occupation Chairman and CEO, News Corporation
Net worth $8.8 Billion[1]
Spouse 1) Patricia Booker (1956 - 1967), one daughter Prudence;
2) Anna Tõrv (1967 - 1999), one daughter
Elisabeth and two sons Lachlan and James;
3)
Wendi Deng (1999 - present); two daughters Grace and Chloe

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KCSG (born Melbourne, March 11, 1931), usually known as Rupert Murdoch, is an Australian-American global media mogul. He is the major shareholder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation (News Corp). Beginning with newspapers, magazines and television stations in his native Australia, Murdoch expanded News Corp into the UK, US and Asian media markets. In recent years has become a leading investor in satellite television, the film industry, the Internet and media. News Corp is based in New York.

According to the 2007 Forbes 400, Murdoch is the 33rd wealthiest American, with a net worth of $8.8 billion.[2] He was made a Grand-Officer in the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II.

Contents

Beginnings

Early life and family

Rupert Murdoch in 1937 with his parents, Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch, and his sister, departing Melbourne for Britain, by sea.
Rupert Murdoch in 1937 with his parents, Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch, and his sister, departing Melbourne for Britain, by sea.

Murdoch's father was a powerful Australian newspaper proprietor Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch and his mother is Dame Elisabeth Murdoch. He attended Geelong Grammar, one of Australia's most elite private schools and was reading philosophy, politics and economics at Worcester College, University of Oxford, England, when his father died in 1952.

Before his death, Keith Murdoch had accumulated a great number of shares in newspaper companies, including some representing a controlling interest in News Limited, an Adelaide company publishing an afternoon newspaper called The News. He had appointed an experienced journalist named Rohan Rivett, a childhood friend and mentor of Rupert Murdoch, as editor of The News, with the hope that Rupert would enter a career in journalism and that Rivett would assist Rupert in learning the required skills. In his will, Keith Murdoch instructed his trustees that Rupert should begin his career at The News: "if they consider him worthy of support". At that time of his father's death, Murdoch had written articles for Oxford student newspapers and had worked for a number of newspapers in a junior capacity. Some thought he had little interest in journalism though and noted his enthusiasm for gambling and making money.[3] At the time of his death Keith Murdoch was heavily in debt, but possessed within a private family trust a considerable number of newspaper shares, some of which may have actually belonged to The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd.[4] The trustees, in consultation with Keith's widow and Rupert's mother, Lady Murdoch, were forced to sell many of the shares and other property in order to repay debt and death duties (government taxes).[3] Elisabeth was able to retain only the family home, Cruden Farm, and the shares in News Limited and its subsidiaries, a Melbourne magazine publishing company named Southdown Press and The Barrier Miner, a regional newspaper at Broken Hill, New South Wales.

Start of business career

Rupert Murdoch returned from Oxford to become managing director of News Limited in 1953. Through his leadership, the staff and the circulation and advertising revenue began to grow. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion. He bought the Sunday Times in Perth, Western Australia and, using the tabloid techniques of Lord Northcliffe, made it a success.[citation needed]

In 1956, Murdoch began publishing Australia's first and most successful weekly television magazine, TV Week, at Southdown Press in Melbourne, which also published Australia's oldest women's magazine New Idea. With the Perth paper, the TV magazine and a re-energised New Idea all providing a steady and improving cash flow he was able to obtain finance for more expansion from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a government-owned bank dedicated to supporting Australian business development.

A defining moment in Murdoch's life was the Stuart case in Adelaide when The News began a campaign to free Max Stuart, a young Aboriginal carnival worker, who had been convicted of the murder of a small girl on a beach near Ceduna, South Australia in late 1958. Stuart had been sentenced to death by hanging. The News was openly critical of the case and investigated it extensively. The death penalty was eventually commuted to life imprisonment.

The campaign by The News raised the ire of the Premier of South Australia, Sir Thomas Playford. He established a royal commission, conducted by the state's Chief Justice, the same judge who had passed sentence on Stuart. The outcome was a confirmation of Stuart's guilt and a recommendation that News Ltd (of which Murdoch was managing director) and its editor be charged with nine counts of seditious libel, a form of treason based on medieval English law, and criminal libel. Eight of the charges were thrown out, but the jury could not agree on the ninth, which the prosecution subsequently withdrew. This experience gave Murdoch a taste of the overwhelming power of popularly elected politicians and would shape the future policies of all his newspapers. (In 2002, he financed a motion picture Black and White, a fictionalised version of the Stuart story.) Shortly after the case, Murdoch replaced Rivett as editor of The News.

Over the next few years, Murdoch established himself in Australia as a dynamic business operator, expanding his holdings by acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory. including the Sydney afternoon tabloid, The Daily Mirror, as well as a small Sydney-based recording company, Festival Records. His acquisition of the Daily Mirror allowed him to challenge two powerful rivals in Australia's biggest city and to outwit his afternoon rival in a long circulation war.[citation needed]

In 1964, Murdoch launched The Australian, Australia's first national daily newspaper, based first in Canberra and later in Sydney. The Australian, a broadsheet, was intended to give Murdoch a new respectability as a 'quality' newspaper publisher and greater political influence. The paper had a rocky start, marked by publishing difficulties and a constantly changing succession of editors who found it impossible to deal with Murdoch's persistent interference. Promised as a serious journal of the affairs of the nation, the paper actually veered between tabloid sensationalism and intellectual tedium until Murdoch was able to find a compliant editor who could abide with his often unpredictable predilections.

The departure in 1966 of the Liberal Prime Minister Robert Menzies saw a chaotic six years of politics after Menzies' chosen successor Harold Holt drowned, to be replaced by John Gorton and then William McMahon. In 1972, Murdoch acquired the Sydney morning tabloid The Daily Telegraph. In that year's election, Murdoch threw his growing power behind the Australian Labor Party under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and duly saw it win power. As the Whitlam government suffered a great loss of public support following its 1974 re-election, Murdoch soon turned against Whitlam and supported the Governor-General's dismissal of the Prime Minister.

During this period, Murdoch turned his attention overseas. His business success in Australia and his fastidious policy of prompt periodic repayments of his borrowings had placed him in good financial standing with the Commonwealth Bank and he obtained its support for his biggest venture yet, the takeover of a family company which owned The News of the World, the Sunday newspaper with the biggest circulation in Britain.

Building the Empire

Acquisitions in Britain

Murdoch expanded to Britain in 1968. He succeeded in beating rival publisher Robert Maxwell in securing The News of the World, which had been the most popular English language newspaper in the world, claiming a peak circulation of 8,441,966 in 1950. By 1968, the circulation had dropped to around six million and a substantial number of its shares were offered for sale by a member of the Carr family, which had part-owned and managed the company for nearly seventy years.[5]

It was also the first time Murdoch risked the whole business he had already created on the outcome of a new venture, for he mortgaged the most valuable of his existing Australian properties to buy the paper with a promise that he would share control with the existing Carr management. Upon succeeding, Murdoch not only controlled News of the World but had then completely regained full ownership of all his Australian assets.[6]

When the daily newspaper The Sun entered the market in 1969, Murdoch acquired and converted it into a tabloid format, which by 2006 was selling three million copies per day.[7]

Murdoch acquired The Times (and The Sunday Times) in 1981, the paper his father's mentor, Viscount Northcliffe, had once owned. The distinction of owning The Times came to him through his careful cultivation of the owner who had grown tired of losing money on the property.

During the 1980s and early 90s, Murdoch's publications were generally supportive of the UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[8]

At the end of the Thatcher/Major era, Murdoch switched his support to the Labour Party and the party's leader Tony Blair. The closeness of his relationship with Blair and their secret meetings to discuss national policies was to become a political issue in Britain.

In 1986, Murdoch introduced electronic production processes to his newspapers in Australia, Britain, and the United States. This led to significant reductions in the number of employees involved in the printing process due to the greater role of automation. In England, the move aroused the anger of the print unions, resulting in a long and often violent dispute fought in London's docklands area of Wapping, where Murdoch had installed the very latest electronic newspaper publishing factory in an old warehouse.[9] The unions had been led to assume that Murdoch intended to launch a new London evening newspaper from those premises, but he had kept as a surprise his intention to relocate all News titles there.[citation needed] Once the Wapping battle had ended, union opposition in Australia followed suit.[citation needed] Today, most newspapers around the world are produced using his method, with significant cost savings involved in the automation of the process.[citation needed]

News has subsidiaries in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands and the Virgin Islands. From 1986 News Corporation's annual tax bill averaged around seven percent of profits.[10]

Moving into the United States

Murdoch made his first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when he purchased the San Antonio Express-News. Soon afterwards, he founded Star, a supermarket tabloid, and in 1976, he purchased the New York Post. On September 4, 1985, Murdoch became a naturalized citizen, to satisfy the legal requirement that only US citizens could own American television stations. In 1987, in Australia, he bought The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd., the company that his father had once managed. By 1991, his Australian-based News Corp. had amassed huge debts, which forced Murdoch to sell many of the American magazine interests he had acquired in the mid-80s. Much of this debt came from his British-based satellite network Sky Television, which incurred massive losses in its early years of operation, which (like many of his business interests) was heavily subsidized with profits from his other holdings, until he was able to force rival satellite operator British Satellite Broadcasting to accept a merger on his terms in 1990. (The merged company, BSkyB, has dominated the British pay-TV market ever since.)

In 1995, Murdoch's Fox Network became the object of scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), when it was alleged that News Ltd.'s Australian base made Murdoch's ownership of Fox illegal. The FCC, however, ruled in Murdoch's favor, stating that his ownership of Fox was in the public's best interests. In the same year, Murdoch announced a deal with MCI Communications to develop a major news website, as well as funding a conservative magazine, The Weekly Standard. In the same year, News Corp. launched the Foxtel pay television network in Australia, in a partnership with Telstra.

In 1996, Murdoch chose to enter the world of cable news with the Fox News Channel, a 24-hour cable news station. Following its launch, the heavily-funded Fox News consistently eroded CNN's market share, and eventually proclaimed itself as "the most-watched cable news channel." This is due in part to recent ratings studies, released in the fourth quarter of 2004, showing that the network had nine of the top ten programs in the "Cable News" category. However, in recent years, its ratings have begun to decline.[11][12]

In 1999, Murdoch significantly expanded his music holdings in Australia by acquiring the controlling share in a leading Australian independent label, Michael Gudinski's Mushroom Records; he merged that with Festival Records and the result was Festival Mushroom Records (FMR). Both Festival and FMR were managed by Murdoch's son James Murdoch for several years.

Expansion in Asia

Murdoch acquired Star TV from a Hong Kong company in 1993 (Souchou, 2000:28) STAR TV (Asia) and created offices for it throughout Asia, including Singapore, China, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, etc. It is one of the biggest satellite TV networks in Asia. The strategy failed. Murdoch has now retreated from China after losing at least $US1billion.

Recent activities

In late 2003, Murdoch acquired a 34 percent stake in Hughes Electronics, operator of the largest American satellite TV system, DirecTV, from General Motors for $6 billion (USD).

In 2004, Murdoch announced that he was moving News Corp.'s headquarters from Adelaide, Australia to the United States. Choosing a US domicile was designed to ensure that American fund managers could purchase shares in the company in circumstances where many chose not to buy shares in non-US companies. Some analysts believed that News Corp's Australian domicile was leading to the company being undervalued compared with its peers.

On July 20, 2005, News Corp. bought Intermix Media Inc., which held MySpace.com and other popular social networking-themed websites for $580 million USD. On September 11, 2005, News Corp announced that it would buy IGN Entertainment for $650 million (USD).[13]

Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner have been competitors for quite some time. In 1996 Murdoch launched the Fox News Channel to compete against Turner's CNN.[14]

The subject of Murdoch's alleged anti-competitive business practices resurfaced in September 2005. Australian media proprietor Kerry Stokes, owner of the Seven Network, instituted legal action against News Corporation and the PBL organization, headed by Kerry Packer. The suit stems from the 2002 collapse of Stokes' planned cable television channel C7 Sport, which would have been a direct competitor to the other major Australian cable provider, Foxtel, in which News and PBL have major stakes.

Stokes claims that News Corp. and PBL (along with several other media organizations) colluded to force C7 out of business by using undue influence to prevent C7 from gaining vital broadcast rights to major sporting events. In evidence given to the court on 26 September, Stokes alleged that PBL executive James Packer came to his home in December 2000 and warned him that PBL and News Limited were "getting together" to prevent the AFL rights being granted to C7.

Recently, Murdoch has bought out the Turkish TV channel, TGRT, which was previously confiscated by the Turkish Board of Banking Regulations, TMSF. Newspapers report that Murdoch has bought TGRT in a partnership with Turkish recording mogul, Ahmet Ertegün and there are alleged reports that Murdoch has acquired Turkish citizenship to overcome the current obligations against capital sales to foreigners.

Political activities

Australia

Murdoch's shattering experience with Thomas Playford in South Australia (see above: "Start of Business Career") and his early political activities in Australia were to set the pattern he would continue to use around the world.[15]

Murdoch found a political ally in John McEwen, leader of the Australian Country Party and governing in coalition with the larger Menzies-Holt Liberal Party. From the very first issue of The Australian Murdoch began taking McEwen's side in every issue that divided the long-serving coalition partners. (The Australian, July 15, 1964, first edition front page: “Strain in Cabinet, Liberal-CP row flares.”) It was an issue that threatened to split the coalition government and open the way for the stronger Australian Labor Party to dominate Australian politics. It was the beginning of a long campaign that served McEwen well.[16]

McEwen repaid Murdoch's support later by aiding him to buy his valuable rural property Cavan and then arranged a clever subterfuge by which Murdoch was able to transfer a large sum of money from Australia to England to complete the purchase of The News of the World without obtaining the required authority from the Australian Treasury.

After McEwen and Menzies retired, Murdoch transferred his support to the newly elected Leader of the Australian Labor Party, Gough Whitlam, who was elected in 1972 on a social platform that included universal free health care, free education for all Australians to tertiary level, recognition of the People's Republic of China and public ownership of Australia's oil, gas and mineral resources.

Rupert Murdoch's flirtation with Whitlam turned out to be brief. He had already started his short lived National Star[16] newspaper in America and was seeking to strengthen his political contacts there.[17]

Asked about the Australian federal election, 2007, at the News Corporation annual general meeting in New York on 19 October 2007, its chairman Rupert Murdoch, once an Australian and now a citizen of the USA said, "I am not commenting on anything to do with Australian politics, I'm sorry. I always get into trouble when I do that." Pressed whether he believed Prime Minister John Howard should be re-elected he said: "I have nothing further to say. I'm sorry. Read our editorials in the papers. It'll be the journalists who decide that - the editors."[18]

United States of America

Murdoch's publications worldwide tend to adopt conservative views. During the buildup to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, all 175 Murdoch-owned newspapers worldwide editorialized in favor of the war.[19] Murdoch also served on the board of directors of the libertarian Cato Institute. News Corp-owned Fox News is often criticized for a strong conservative and anti-liberal bias.

On May 8, 2006, the Financial Times[3] reported that Murdoch would be hosting a fundraiser for Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-New York) Senate reelection campaign. Murdoch's New York Post newspaper opposed Clinton's Senate run in 2000.

In May 2007, Murdoch made a $5 billion offer to purchase Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal. At the time, the Bancroft family, who controlled 64% of the shares, outspokenly declined the offer, opposing Murdoch's often-used strategy of large employee cuts and "gutting" pre-existing systems. Later, the Bancroft family confirmed a willingness to consider a sale--aside from Murdoch, the Associated Press reported that supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle and Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan were among other interested parties.[20] On August 1, 2007, the BBC's "News and World Report"[21] and NPR's Marketplace[22] radio programs reported that Murdoch bought Dow Jones; the news was received with mixed reactions.

In a 2008 interview with Walt Mossberg, Murdoch was asked whether he had "anything to do with the New York Post's endorsement of [ Barack Obama ]." Without hesitation, Murdoch replied, "Yeah." "He is a rock star. It's fantastic" "I love what he is saying about education." "I don't think he will win Florida.....but he will win in Ohio and the election". "I am anxious to meet him." "I want to see if he will walk the walk." [23] [24]

United Kingdom

In Britain, he formed a close alliance with Margaret Thatcher, and The Sun credited itself with helping John Major win an unexpected election victory in the 1992 general election. [25] However, in the general elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005, Murdoch's papers were either neutral or supported Labour under Tony Blair. This has led some critics to argue that Murdoch simply supports the incumbent parties (or those who seem most likely to win an upcoming election) in the hope of influencing government decisions that may affect his businesses. The Labour Party under Blair had moved significantly to the Right on many economic issues prior to 1997. Murdoch identifies himself as a libertarian.[26]

In a speech in New York, Rupert Murdoch said that the UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said the BBC coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster was full of hatred of America. Murdoch is a strong critic of the BBC, which he believes has a left wing bias.

In 1998, Rupert Murdoch made a failed attempt to buy footballing power Manchester United FC. He offered £625 million. It was the largest amount of money anyone had offered for a sports club. It was rejected by the United Kingdom's Competition Commission, citing that the acquisition would have "hurt competition in the broadcast industry and the quality of British football".

On June 28, 2006 the BBC reported that Murdoch and News Corporation are flirting with idea of backing Conservative leader David Cameron at the next General Election.[27] However in a recent interview, when asked what he thought of the new Conservative leader, Murdoch replied "Not much".

In 2006, the UK’s Independent newspaper reported that Murdoch was to offer Tony Blair a senior role in his global media company News Corp. when the UK prime minister stood down from office.[28]

He is also accused by former Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan having a personal vendetta against him and of conspiring with MI5 to produce a video of him confessing to having affairs - allegations which Sheridan had previously sued News International over and won.[29] On being arrested for perjury following the case Sheridan claimed that the charges were "orchestrated and influenced by the powerful reach of the Murdoch empire"[30]

Personal life

Murdoch has been married three times. In 1956 he married Patricia Booker, a former shop assistant and air hostess from Melbourne, with whom he had his first child, a daughter Prudence Murdoch, born in 1958. Pat did not like Adelaide with its extremes of weather and where she had few friends and Rupert was frequently away building the foundations of his future empire.[31] They divorced in 1967. In the same year, he married Anna Tõrv, an Estonian-born cadet journalist working for his Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

Tõrv and Murdoch had three children: Elisabeth Murdoch (born in Sydney, Australia August 22, 1968), Lachlan Murdoch (born in London, UK September 8, 1971), and James Murdoch, (born in Wimbledon, UK December 13, 1972). Murdoch's companies published two novels by his then wife: Family Business (1988) and Coming to Terms (1991); both were seen as being vanity publications. Anna and Rupert divorced acrimoniously in June, 1999.

Wendi Deng Murdoch
Wendi Deng Murdoch

Anna Murdoch received a settlement of US$ 1.2 Billion assets.[32] Seventeen days after the divorce, on June 25, 1999, Murdoch, then 68, married Chinese born Deng Wendi, later changed to Wendi Deng. She was then 30, a recent Yale School of Management graduate and newly appointed vice-president of STAR TV. Anna Murdoch was also remarried, in October 1999, to William Mann.

Murdoch has since had two children with Deng: Grace (born in New York November 19, 2001) and Chloe (born in New York July 17, 2003).

Murdoch's eldest son Lachlan, formerly the deputy chief operating officer at the News Corporation and the publisher of the New York Post, was Murdoch's heir apparent before resigning from his executive posts at the global media company at the end of July 2005. Lachlan's departure left James, chief executive of the satellite television service British Sky Broadcasting since November 2003, as the only Murdoch scion still directly involved with the company's operations, though Lachlan has agreed to remain on the News Corporation's board.

After graduating from Vassar College and marrying classmate Elkin Kwesi Pianim (the son of Ghanaian financial and political mogul Kwame Pianim) in 1993, Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, along with her husband, purchased a pair of NBC-affiliate television stations KSBW and KSBY in California on a $35 million loan from her father. By quickly re-organizing and re-selling them at a $12 million profit, Elisabeth emerged in 1995 as an unexpected rival to her brothers for eventual leadership of the publishing dynasty's empire. But after quarreling publicly with her assigned mentor Sam Chisholm at BSkyB, she veered out on her own as a television and film producer in London, where she has enjoyed independent success in conjunction with her second husband, Matthew Freud.

It is unknown whether Murdoch will remain as News Corp's CEO indefinitely. The American cable television entrepreneur John Malone was for a time the second largest voting shareholder in News Corporation after Murdoch himself potentially undermining the family's control. In 2007, the company announced that it would sell certain assets and provide cash to Malone's company in exchange for the cancellation of their stock. Murdoch in 2007 issued his older children with equal voting stock perhaps to test their individual interest and ability to run the company according to standards he has set.

Portrayal on television and film

Rupert Murdoch has been portrayed by Barry Humphries in the 1991 mini-series Selling Hitler, Hugh Laurie in a parody of It's a Wonderful Life in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Ben Mendelsohn in Black and White, Paul Elder in The Late Shift and by himself on The Simpsons.

Criticism and controversy

In 1999, The Economist reported that Newscorp Investments had made £1.4 billion ($2.1 billion) in profits over the previous 11 years but had paid no net corporation tax. It further reported, after an examination of what was available of the accounts, that Newscorp would normally have expected to pay a corporate tax of approximately $350 million. The article explained that the corporation's complex structure, international scope and use of offshore havens allowed News Corporation to avoid tax.[33][34]

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel has been criticized for being politically conservative and advocating conservative policies and candidates. The network is criticised in the 2004 documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, which was produced and directed by Robert Greenwald. An article by Professor Roy Greenslade in Guardian Unlimited pointed out that elsewhere in Murdoch's media empire all 175 newspapers owned by him editorialized in favour of the Iraq war.[35]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ #32 Keith Rupert Murdoch - Forbes.com
  2. ^ Forbes.com
  3. ^ a b Younger, R.M. (2003). "Keith Murdoch: Founder of a Media Empire". HarperCollins. 
  4. ^ Chenoweth (2001) p 45
  5. ^ Shawcross (1997) pp 69-78
  6. ^ Page (2003) pp 120-123
  7. ^ Page (2003) pp 131-135 et seq.
  8. ^ Page (2003) p 3, pp 253-419
  9. ^ Page (2003) pp 368-393
  10. ^ Chenoweth (2001) pp 300-303, 87-90, 177
  11. ^ Slumping Fox News Celebrating 1st Decade, David Bauder, Associated Press, September 30, 2006 (as reported by Fox News)
  12. ^ "Fox News ratings take a steep tumble", Kevin Downey, Media Life Magazine, November 2, 2006
  13. ^ News Corp. Acquires IGN for $650 Million
  14. ^ Marketplace News Archives
  15. ^ Shawcross (1997) pp 21-24. In May, 1922, Keith Murdoch wrote to Northcliffe boasting of a remarkable circulation increase to the Melbourne Herald as a result of following Northcliff's advice to seek out a good murder story: "You remarked to me that when a sensation comes, you would get all the new readers you want. Perfectly true. I had only put on 8000 when we got a murder mystery, an unprecedented one, leading to such scenes as mounted police having to be called out to check the crowds about the residence of the supposed murderer. That left us with a steady 125,000. Then came the trial when we were averaging 230,000 or thereabouts. We are left with a steady 140,000 now and I hope for a bit more." Correspondence with Keith Murdoch [microform] : [M1641] 1915-1922. Northcliffe, Alfred Harmsworth, Viscount, 1865-1922. The crime referred to was known as the Gun Alley Murder. See  
  16. ^ a b Don Garden, Theodor Fink: A Talent for Ubiquity (Melbourne University Press 1998)
  17. ^ Shawcross, pp 30-39
  18. ^ Michael Roland, Murdoch tight-lipped on election, ABC News Online, published 20 October 2007
  19. ^ Their master's voice
  20. ^ Associated Press "Burkle, Web Exec Might Team on Dow"
  21. ^ Daily Telegraph report of aquisition
  22. ^ Marketplace Report: Murdoch's Big Buy
  23. ^ [1]
  24. ^ [2]
  25. ^ BBC NEWS | Magazine | Forty years of The Sun
  26. ^ Murdoch's politics
  27. ^ Murdoch flirts with Conservatives
  28. ^ Murdoch set to back Blair - for a place in his boardroom
  29. ^ Sheridan claims to be 'victim of MI5 plot'
  30. ^ Tommy Sheridan charged with perjury
  31. ^ According to Rod Lever, a long-serving News Limited executive and friend of Pat Booker.
  32. ^ The Boy Who Wouldn't Be King
  33. ^ Rupert Murdoch Laid Bare
  34. ^ Tax free: Rupert Murdoch's zero status
  35. ^ Their master's voice

References

  • Chenoweth, Neil (2001). "Rupert Murdoch, the untold story of the world's greatest media wizard". New York: Random House. 
  • Shawcross, William (1997). Murdoch: the making of a media empire. New York: Simon and Schuster. 
  • Page, Bruce (2003). The Murdoch Archipelago. Simon and Schuster UK. 
  • Souchou, Yao (2000). "House of Glass - Culture, Modernity, and the State in Southeast Asia". Bangkok: White Lotus. 
  • Bruce Dover's book, Rupert's Adventures in China:How Murdoch Lost A Fortune And Found A Wife (Mainstream Publishing).

External links