A dissolving dynasty

In the wake of James Murdoch’s resignation from the board of News Corp, Ray Snoddy shares his own memories of the Murdoch dynasty

Even after a decade it was a telling moment in the excellent BBC Two television trilogy, The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, to see Rupert Murdoch describe his appearance before the Culture, Media and Sport Select committee as “the most humble day of my career.”

It was the line all the coverage of the hearing into the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World focussed on at the time, presumably because humble was not a word that anyone had ever associated with Rupert Murdoch before.

What was humble here? Was the day humble, the experience humble or had Murdoch himself been humbled by having to appear before MPs for scrutiny for the first time in 40 years?

He was more used to walking through the front door of Downing Street or entertaining political leaders such as Tony Blair at internal News Corporation conferences on Pacific islands.

How humble Rupert Murdoch was that day is a moot point. He certainly didn’t come up with the eye-catching phrase himself.

With a proud glint in his eye, Margaret Thatcher’s favourite adman, Lord Bell admitted privately that he had prepped Murdoch for his command performance and came up with the phrase that came to characterise the occasion.

The Murdochs survived their light three-hour grilling and lived to fight another day, although the Select Committee report spoke of “wilful blindness” in the matter of the illegal phone-hackings.

The business reputation of James Murdoch, who has now finally cut himself adrift from the Murdoch corporate mothership, was seriously damaged as a result of what many saw as a binary matter.

As the executive in charge of News Corp national newspapers, if he knew about the phone hacking and did nothing he was culpable. If he didn’t know, he was incompetent.

Another telling moment from the recent three-part TV documentary was the reprise of former Prime Minister Sir John Major’s evidence to the Leveson Committee on how Rupert Murdoch presented an ultimatum in a private meeting before the 1997 election – change the Conservative’s pro-Europe stance or our papers will not support you.

As Sir John said other newspaper proprietors might have hinted at trying to persuade him to change policy in the past – none had ever been so blatant before.

There is no doubt that Sir John, as Tony Blair would also do, received not just Murdoch but was also in close contact with Murdoch editors such as Kelvin MacKenzie, who did not appear in the series presumably because he declined.

It is still jaw-droppingly shocking after all these years to recall what MacKenzie claims to have said to his Prime Minister during the exchange rate mechanism crisis of 1992.

The story, (which Sir John Major later would tell the Leveson inquiry that he had no recollection of it actually happening) goes that, the PM had called to inquire how he would be treated in the next day’s The Sun and MacKenzie replied: “Well John, let me put it this way. I’ve got a large bucket of shit lying on my desk and tomorrow I’m going to pour it all over your head.”

Around that time, Murdoch would call MacKenzie every day to ask what was in the paper, what was the lead going to be, and to tap into the latest political gossip – Murdoch’s favourite small change.

So there is little doubt that Murdoch directly influences his editors and tries to influence government policies in a socially conservative direction.

It was a memorable experience to be sitting in the back of a chauffeur-driven car in New York on the way to a ride in his private jet to Los Angeles to hear it spelled out specifically.

Murdoch said that as for The Sun and the News of the World it was his call which party they supported at election times. It was a bit more tricky with The Times and the Sunday Times because of independent editorial boards. Murdoch did not say so, there the skill is in choosing editors who will come up with the “right” answer.

Certainly all the independent editorial boards will not save an editor when Murdoch wants him to go – as James Harding was to find out – a departure some say was linked to his support in The Times for gay marriage.

Later in the private jet, in a conversation that lasted all the way to Los Angeles, Murdoch made it clear The Sun would come out for Blair.

And so it was that the Financial Times had an unattributable front-page story predicting that The Sun would support Blair something that came as a surprise to its editor.

The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty has been criticised because some other issues were missing. In fact, the documentary series was right to concentrate on the dynastic issue – one of the mainsprings of Murdoch motivation.

Ever since he built a media empire from the two Adelaide titles inherited from his father Sir Keith Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch has always hoped there would be a family succession and that at least one of his three children from his wife Anna would step forward.

It has been portrayed as a King Lear-like battle though Elisabeth has cautioned privately that off the corporate stage all three siblings get on well together. Why should they not when there is a multi-billion trust fund for them to manage?

The corporate succession has now simplified itself with James following Elisabeth in doing his own thing, leaving the Murdoch corporate role to Lachlan.

The fact that James cited opposition to the climate change scepticism of the Murdoch papers in Australia as a factor in his departure highlights an important issue.

It helped to highlight that on the largest issues of the day, the 89-year-old Murdoch increasingly looks out of step with history.

It’s not just climate change either. Rupert Murdoch attached himself enthusiastically to the presidency of Donald J. Trump and must now watch it unravel under Trump’s inept handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It will also be interesting to see what The Sun will tell its readers if, as seems likely, the UK leaves the European Union with either No Deal or a very poor one indeed.

And there again on Europe, The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty hit the nail on the head.

Rupert Murdoch, the programme emphasised is anti-Europe because he found that unlike successive UK governments, the European Commission paid no attention to him at all.

That leads to the greatest, unvarying truth of all about RKM. He may have socially conservative views but one thing drives him above all else – and that is the institutional survival and wellbeing of the News Corporation, in whatever form it takes.

Compared with that, anything and anyone else is secondary.