A little review I wrote of a Cutting Edge documentary on Rupe around 2004, I think
"By his own standards of character assassination, everyone's favourite Australian media magnate got an easy ride in Tuesday night's Cutting Edge, "The Real Rupert Murdoch."
Newspapers were in the blood (along with gambling and Presbyterianism). His father Keith, a journalist of principle and creator of the Melbourne Herald Group, was delighted to see that his son appeared to be following in his footsteps. Through jaunty sketches, we watched young Rupert progress from employing his sisters as cut-price labour, to sacking his friend Rowan Rivett, heading off Robert Maxwell in London to gain control of The News of the World and eventually relaunching a union broadsheet, The Sun, in 1969 - the end of the idealistic sixties and the dawn of modern tabloid journalism.
The account finally heated up during the Thatcher years, when the one-time socialist found that Maggie's championing of the free market was exactly the excuse he needed to bypass the unions and set up News International HQ in Wapping.
The programme found many advocates for Murdoch's business 'philosophy' and publishing style but any critics - "Guardian readers" Murdoch called them - were noticeably absent. Andrew Knight, ex-chairman of News International, considered him a "facilitator", while others praised his libertarianism and his challenging of the establishment.
In fact, the only person who seemed to have a bad word to say about him was his mother, Dame Elisabeth, who admitted: "I'm not keen on digging into people's personal affairs."
