Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 7, 1995 TAG: 9511070043
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To be sure, Murdoch has some fans who celebrate his incredible business acumen and gambling instincts, but it's a lot easier to find people who think he's a pox on society.
The picture of Murdoch that emerges from the show, subtitled ``Who's Afraid of Rupert Murdoch?'' is that of a profit-motivated man of low ideals and little character. The man portrayed on ``Frontline'' is not someone most would want to ask over for dinner any time soon.
``In April, after hearing an original pitch from us about what we intended, Murdoch had said yes'' to cooperating with the report, says ``Frontline'' executive producer David Fanning. ``When we began to make more specific requests for interviews and access to shoot footage of some of his operations, the answer a week later was no. And it's stayed no ever since.''
The reason? Murdoch reportedly ``doesn't trust PBS.''
Murdoch's success stories are well known by now. He took the newspaper he inherited from his publisher dad in Australia and built it into the most powerful media company in the world - News Corp. He dominates the journalism world in both Australia and England and is now making his awesome presence known here through ownership of the Fox TV network and movie studio, TV Guide, various newspapers and, some would suggest, certain politicians.
The biggest knock on Murdoch is that he isn't the least bit interested in improving the practice of journalism; his goal is wielding power at any cost. Many of his former associates also brand him on camera as ``a liar'' who never keeps his word.
``Murdoch is someone who seems to have been allowed to grow unchecked,'' says Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic Tom Shales of the Washington Post in tonight's report, ``like some sort of monster in a science fiction movie - the blob or something.''
The ``Frontline'' report makes a strong case for why that has happened: Murdoch supports powerful people like England's former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich with his checkbook, then calls in his debts when he needs government help.
In the case of Gingrich, the charge has been influence-peddling. One of Murdoch's many book-publishing concerns gave Gingrich the $4.4 million book contract that the speaker had to back out of when it provoked protests. At that time, Murdoch needed help in blocking a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) probe into the legality of his owning the Fox network.
The ``Frontline'' report suggests that Murdoch got the help he needed, despite the exposure of the Gingrich deal, because GOP congressmen severely pressured the FCC to let Murdoch get around the rules prohibiting foreign ownership of a U.S. network. (Murdoch became a U.S. citizen, but Australian money was used to buy the network.)
Tonight's report also suggests that Murdoch gained much support from the Thatcher regime when he broke the newspaper unions in an often-brutal confrontation in the 1980s.
Another severe criticism of Murdoch reflected in the many on-camera interviews is that he has lowered the standards of most of the publications he has bought up - even some of the worst lowbrow tabloids.
The most frightening suggestion in the report is that such a person might so dominate the flow of information in some parts of the world that he could throttle the truth on a massive scale. ``Frontline'' says Murdoch already has bowed to China by removing the BBC from his STAR satellite TV system serving China because that country's leadership wanted to stop the British network's critical reporting.
``He's very shrewd about picking his spots with technology,'' says Paul Judge, the principal reporter for the Murdoch program. ``He's invested heavily in the technologies that he believes are going to carry his company into the future. You're starting to see that play out with his satellite broadcasting concerns in Asia and Europe.''
According to Michael Sullivan, senior producer, it may not be unusual for a media baron to wield political power, but Murdoch ``has been much more overt about his political stance than I think any network executive in America. I'm not sure I could point to another network executive who's taken a political ideology and jammed it down the American public's throat.''
by CNB