The Man Who Owns The News: Inside the secret world of Rupert Murdoch
by Michael Wolff (2008)

Everywhere I go I see this book piled up on shelves that are made out of the very same book. It's hard not to notice them, they seem like they've just been shipped in by large freighters, conveyed out from the cargo and rushed to the store where they were speedily delivered and unpacked as if each shipment would not last the morning. On first glance what stands out about the book isn't the cover picture or the author's name, but it is the title of the book which is made out like the headline of a newspaper. The Man Who Owns The News—simple, direct and exaggerated; the key features of a Murdoch paper, and perhaps the key features of Murdoch himself. After the title's headline follows its subhead, Inside the Secret world of Rupert Murdoch, and finally the uncertainty fades, "Of course" you will realise, "only one man in the world could produce such a cunning attempt to produce such sensation to entice readers and buyers". Rupert Murdoch, ranked by Fortune magazine as the world's most powerful business man second only to Steve Jobs, is often seen as cold, aloof and maybe even mysterious. So a book that proclaims to have cracked into Murdoch's inner life, with personal interviews with the man himself as proof, is assured to be a best seller instantly. A little while before release, this book was already making headlines. Apparently Murdoch had objected to parts of this book, which when considering that Murdoch knew that the author, Michael Wolf, had their interviews recorded on tape as verification, seems to be evidently a cheap publicity stunt orchestrated by Murdoch. Obviously Murdoch didn't choose to sit down with Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff because he was a fair, liberal minded journalist (the kind of journalist Murdoch happens to despise), but because Wolff was open to showing Murdoch as honestly as he could, without the prejudice so often felt against Murdoch and his papers. In fact when you start reading the book, Wolff is almost able to capture Murdoch as a hero, not a villain. Suddenly you sympathise with the shy, young, socially awkward man who has to follow in his father's large footprints. His father, a self made man who became Australia's greatest newspaper mogul, though he secured the path for young Murdoch and left gigantic shoes to fill, would probably never have predicted the path Rupert would take in his shoes. Rupert would ultimately outgrow his father's shoes and conquer the newspaper industry in Britain with the The Times and The Sun, and now the United States with The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal. Not only satisfied with newspapers (though according to this book the only thing he respects are newspapers) he bought Twentieth Century Fox, and various other cable-tv channels, especially ones specialising in sport (even though he hates sports). More recently he has acquired Myspace, giving News Corp. a footing in cyberspace. Although not from humble origins, in the perspective of his success, it may seem that Murdoch is an unlikely hero—almost an underdog even.
This book touches up Murdoch's image by making his cold, selfish and power-hungry characteristics seem necessary in today's business world, almost like they're virtues. Murdoch, so it seems, is happy for you to see that his only charm is his brutal honesty. He doesn't mind people hating him, he only wants people to fear and respect him—not to respect him for his virtuous deeds, but for what he has achieved. But we must remember, that this is the man who, as some have claimed, has singlehandedly destroyed good journalism in today's newspapers. Wolff has been able to successfully put up a beautiful frame around what would have otherwise been a rather unattractive and ugly artwork. Just as you start to sympathise with this monster, you realise that you have been fooled into thinking arrogance, apathy, and artifice were essential in the modern model man. At the end of the day (or the book) Murdoch is just a selfish, successful business man, only interested in making money, even with the Chinese wife to accommodate him. I see plenty of these types of men everyday, they aren't special (they probably read Murdoch papers). Murdoch's mysterious and secretive image is finally explained, it's not that there is something baffling about him, it's that there is nothing interesting. He seems inhuman because he is incredibly boring, behind the apparent facade is a man whose main interests in life are buying newspapers and getting more money. Contrary to the books blurb, there doesn't seem to be much 'insider' information. Since they obviously aren't talking about his dirty secrets (the closest thing I could see was that his ex-wife ran over and killed an elderly lady), the insider information must have been Murdoch's bit-by-bit plan to acquire the unacquirable Wall Street Journal, though this can hardly be compared to the juicy tabloid dirt of which you would expect to read in one of Murdoch's papers. As for the quality of the writing in this book? Well apparently, as Wolff professes, once you are under the sway of Murdoch you instantly become a mind-numb zombie, unable to think for yourself, whilst performing horrific deeds for the dark villain Murdoch. Well this book is no exception; either Wolff is a terrible writer, or he has considerably toned down his writing to suit a target audience of middle-aged men who are more used to reading action fiction and short business reports. Wolf adopts the 'inventive' back and forth style for the book, at one chapter you are in the '90s and in the following you are in the '70s. Where Wolff really fails is in the reenactments of real conversations between CEOs and businessmen where in every short retelling a business men swears in exclamation; every scene goes something like this:

Business Man #1: Murdoch is about to buy the Dow Jones
Business Man #2: Holy s**t!

Now I'm no expert on the business, and maybe every CEO ends a deal in coarse language, but Wolff somehow makes everything seem so embarrassing. Love him or loathe him, this book is a product of Murdoch, and this is Murdoch—the man who owns the news.