FRONTLINE: WHO'S AFRAID OF RUPERT MURDOCH? (TV)
Summary
One in this documentary series. This program documents the rise of multimedia mogul Rupert Murdoch and the controversy surrounding him.
Murdoch controls a large number of media outlets on television, radio, internet, and so forth, experiencing seemingly unchecked growth since he immigrated to the United States from Australia. In the spring of 1995, the FCC claims that he subverted the rules on foreign ownership and deliberately misled them. Murdoch declines to be interviewed for the documentary, mistrustful of PBS and their motives. Opinions of Murdoch are mixed; some admire him for his business acumen and determination, but others believe he is “toxic” and using the media to subvert American culture. Murdoch grew up in Geelong Boarding School in Australia, where he cultivated a noted anti-establishment persona and worldview. He was the son of Sir Keith Murdoch, a newspaper owner, and was resented by his “old money” peers. The elder Murdoch believed that his son would inherit the newspaper, although young Murdoch was uninterested, preferring to sneak off to watch horse races and gamble, at which he was quite proficient. However, he did have a keen interest in newspapers and published a magazine at school, “If Revived.” He and his father did not get along and would often get into political arguments. In 1950, Murdoch attends Oxford University and is not well received due to his Australian background. He is perceived by others at school as a communist due to his idolization of Lenin. He tries to run for office in the Labour Club, but is disqualified for promoting his own candidacy. In October 1952, Murdoch tries to go home to Melbourne to attend his father’s funeral, but arrives too late. In his will, his father leaves him one of the newspapers he owned and advises him to pursue a career in communications if his other trustees deem him “worthy.”
Following his father’s death, Murdoch travels to London and gets a job at Fleet Street to get experience in a newspaper career. Such an environment proves to be extremely competitive as all twelve of Britain’s national newspapers vie for attention and prominence. He becomes a copy editor on the Daily Express, learning much about the newspaper business; he comes to believe that the primary purpose of newspapers is to entertain, not educate. At age 22 he returns to Australia to compete against his father’s other newspaper, now owned by his former colleagues. He fights fiercely against them and undercuts the other paper in advertising rates regardless of the financial losses he suffers. His persistence pays off and he merges the two papers under his own control in only two years’ time. His company, News Ltd., reaps great profits and starts buying up smaller papers across Australia. He focuses on suburban newspapers, deemed to be unprofitable at the time, and emphasizes “lowest common denominator” types of news stories, using sex and violence as a means of attracting reader interest.
In the mid-1950’s television comes to Australia and Murdoch is quick to see its potential, acquiring a broadcasting license in Adelaide. His channel 9 broadcasts local programming and reruns of American television, particularly westerns. Unable to acquire a license in Sydney, the largest Australian market, Murdoch finds a workaround by finding a small station in a nearby town and buying it up, using its transmitter to threaten Sydney’s broadcasting. He violates the informal agreement amongst Australian station owners to create a spending cap, and outbids them for shows at meetings with American television companies. He purchases every program he can get his hands on, running an exorbitant price. However, this gives him the clout to negotiate with the other Australian broadcasters, as they have no other choice. In 1964, Murdoch creates The Australian, Australia’s first national newspaper, and subsidizes it for twenty years before it earns any profit. The Australian proves to be challenging for him and he gets quite into the minutiae of running it. During this time, Murdoch comes to believe that he could have more of an effect on politics, and uses his position to successfully campaign on behalf of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. In return he asks to be made Australia’s ambassador to Great Britain, although Murdoch denies specifically asking for such a post. He is denied and in 1975 turns against Whitlam in favor of another candidate, Malcolm Fraser. The “ferocious” method in which Murdoch turns against Whitlam using extremely one-sided political coverage proves to be controversial. His newspapers are burned in the streets and some of his journalists walk out on him. Despite all this, his efforts prove to be successful. He uses his influence with Fraser to change Australian law regarding ownership of television stations, allowing Murdoch to expand his burgeoning media empire to foreign markets.
He sets his designs on The News of the World, at that time the most widely-circulating newspaper in England. Murdoch manipulates the Carr family, owners of The News of the World, into giving him a large percentage of stock and the job of managing director of the paper, using their fear of a hostile takeover from corporate mogul Robert Maxwell. He then manipulates a shareholder’s meeting into getting him voted on as the buyer, despite a higher bid from Maxwell. Six months later he goes back on his word and buys up enough shares to become the majority shareholder of The News of the World. Murdoch moves to boost circulation by running increasingly tabloid-like stories. This serves as the foundation of his international news empire. He then acquires The Sun, a daily newspaper, in order to have his paper running constantly. He unveils the new paper in 1969, turning into an “aggressive” tabloid-like paper as well, utilizing television heavily to promote it. He continues his philosophy of using newspapers as entertainment rather than news. The most controversial addition to the Sun is the inclusion of a photograph of a topless model every week on the third page, and they engage in other antics such as “theme weeks” and further nudity and scandal.
As the 1970’s progress, Murdoch becomes increasingly right-wing in his political views, idolizing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He uses The Sun to support her, and the Tory Party is appreciative that a “working-class” paper is supporting them; Thatcher’s victory is often attributed to the efforts of The Sun. In late 1976, Murdoch expands his interests to the United States and purchases the liberal-leaning New York Post. In less than a year he manages to more than double the Post’s circulation despite its increasingly lurid content. He purchases New York Magazine in 1977, but does not alter its content despite fears from the staff that he would do so. Murdoch’s tabloid staff comes to work at the Post and utilized great exaggeration and fear in order to sell headlines, such as during the 1977 New York City blackout and the Son of Sam serial killer. Around that time, Murdoch also backs the campaign of Ed Koch for mayor of New York City, and does so with similar aggression and ferocity as his previous political coverage. In 1981, Murdoch purchases England’s most prestigious paper, the Times of London, giving him an opportunity to get into the “up market” of newspapers. His potential monopoly is not investigated due to his close ties with the Thatcher administration. The man put in charge of editing the Times, Harry Evans, quits within a year due to creative differences with Murdoch.
Controversy surrounds Murdoch again when he purchases sixty of Hitler's diaries with the intent to publish them, but discovers that they are fakes. Despite this fiasco, readership increases and the consensus is that Murdoch did save the Times. He confronts another problem in his attempts to modernize his printing technologies, meeting with heavy resistance from the print unions. Murdoch attempts to get the unions to move to an automated plant in Wapping for six years without success. He takes matters into his own hands by secretly employing a team of American computer specialists in order to create a computerized system capable of producing papers without the aid of the unions. His secret project pays off and the presses start rolling, but the unions go on strike in 1987; Murdoch busses in strike-breakers instead. The strikes become quite intense and employees recall the facility having an “Orwellian” feel. Thatcher’s administration’s own efforts to curb the power of unions progresses simultaneously, creating a nationwide conflict. Eventually Murdoch comes out on top despite the efforts of the strikers.
Without the influence of unions to detract from profits, Murdoch’s own financial standing increases dramatically and he moves to become a multimedia mogul by acquiring the Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox in 1985. In order to facilitate his new media company he purchases a television distribution system in the form of seven television stations for the then unheard-of sum of two billion dollars. The FCC is lenient on Murdoch’s activities due to political demand for a new television network. The first couple of years of its existence prove to be difficult for the Fox network due to the perceived low quality of its programming. However, they soon refocus their target demographic to younger audiences and gain some success in that way despite the continued perception of its low-quality and sex-based programming. Their reality programming, such as “Cops” and the tabloid program “A Current Affair” experience huge success. In 1989, Murdoch launches a satellite television system, Sky Television, installing his Times editor Andrew Neil as its head. The launch proves to be a financial disaster since dishes do not sell as expected, losing two billion dollars in its first year of business. Murdoch, undaunted, acquires TV Guide magazine for three billion dollars, and keeps buying magazines and other publications for hundreds of millions of dollars. His parent company News Corp falls under intense pressure from their banks at this time, as Murdoch overextends himself with all his purchasing. Lending procedures are made highly complicated by the complex structure of Murdoch’s organization. Teams work frantically to restructure Murdoch’s debt, and he is personally troubled by this precarious situation.
Pittsburgh National bank calls in their ten million dollar loan to Murdoch, and many in News Corp fear that this action could have a domino effect and destroy the entire organization. Murdoch personally contacts the loan officer in charge and persuades him to postpone. For the next few years Murdoch is more careful about his spending and does his best to manage his company’s finances. His next major move comes with the purchase of the Hong Kong-based Star satellite network, hoping to cash in on the lucrative expanding television market in Asia. The system comes to encompass over 50 countries and over 54 million subscribers. Allowing foreign television in has far-reaching effects, such as Western countries learning about the massacre in Tiananmen Square. Murdoch seizes upon the opportunity to be viewed as a proliferator of this technology in opposition to totalitarianism. BBC news broadcasts make their way into China via Star, despite the Chinese government’s distaste for the network for unrelated reasons. Murdoch accedes to the Chinese demands and takes the BBC off of Star, inspiring mixed reactions from both supporters and critics. Murdoch’s next major acquisition comes in 1993, when he uses Fox to purchase the rights to broadcast NFL football games, taking it away from longtime football broadcaster CBS by massively outbidding them. This proves to be greatly successful, and an emboldened Murdoch starts purchasing more affiliate stations, totaling over 200.
NBC files a complaint against Fox to the FCC claiming that Murdoch acquired his affiliates under false pretenses. They claim that the affiliates are foreign-owned, and continue to press their claim even after Murdoch becomes an American citizen to avoid it. NBC attempts to launch a satellite in Asia to compete with Fox, but their rocket explodes during launch. A disheartened NBC withdraws its complaint against Fox. However, the FCC investigation continues and Murdoch takes it seriously. He tries to circumvent the law by granting large contributions to Republican politicians in 1994, and his unanimous victory in 1995 at the FCC hearing means that he avoids the chaotic fate that would have befallen Fox television and solidifies his power and influence in the United States.
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: November 7, 1995 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:21:20
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:75353
- GENRE: Public affairs/documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/documentaries
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1983-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- William Cran … Senior Producer
- Jim Gilmore … Producer, Director, Writer
- Ken Auletta … Writer
- Paul Judge … Writer
- Ken Auletta … Narrator, Reporter
- Andrew Neil … Interviewee
- Ranald MacDonald … Interviewee
- Thomas Kiernan … Interviewee
- Max Suich … Interviewee
- James Brady … Interviewee
- Tom Shales … Interviewee
- Robert Spitzle … Interviewee
- Darrell Wardle … Interviewee
- George Masterman … Interviewee
- Harry Pitts … Interviewee
- Paul Johnson … Interviewee
- David Bowman … Interviewee
- Graham King … Interviewee
- Donald Coyle … Interviewee
- Adrian Dreamer … Interviewee
- Mungo MacCallum … Interviewee
- Alan Watkins … Interviewee
- Michael Grade … Interviewee
- Steve Dunleavy … Interviewee
- Ed Koch … Interviewee
- Bill O'Neill … Interviewee
- Alf Parish … Interviewee
- Ben Smylie … Interviewee
- Barry Diller … Interviewee
- Garth Ancier … Interviewee
- Preston Padden … Interviewee
- Brenda Dean
- Harry Evans
- Malcolm Fraser
- Robert Maxwell
- Elisabeth Murdoch
- Keith Murdoch
- Rupert Murdoch
- Max Newton
- Margaret Thatcher
- Gough Whitlam