If keeping one’s word is the measure of a man, well – Rupert Murdoch comes up way short in “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence.” From his beginnings as an Australian newspaperman to becoming the world’s most influential media mogul, Murdoch repeatedly made promises that not only did he not keep, but brazenly broke the moment he got what he wanted.
Outside of that, CNN’s seven-part documentary miniseries plays “The Murdochs” largely down the middle – a surprisingly nonpartisan portrait of a man and his family, produced by a bitter political and journalistic rival, that’s light on bombshells (virtually none) and heavy on fascinating archival footage of a young Murdoch who never seemed to stop trying to please his late father.
Understandably, “The Murdochs: Empire of Influence” was made without the participation of its main subjects: Murdoch and his three middle children – Elisabeth, Lachlan and James – who are, to this day, aligning themselves to be his sole successor. (Inevitable comparisons with the hit show “Succession” would seem silly since the HBO drama was originally conceived as a movie about the Murdochs, but the one-successor-to-rule-them-all theory is indeed the reality.)
Though the patriarch, now 91, suffered a near-death scare in a fall aboard son Lachlan’s megayacht in 2018, the derby to control one of the world’s most powerful media empires continues apace. Lachlan may have strong connections to this family but fortunes can change very quickly.
“[He] has always intended to pass off his company to one of his children in particular,”Jonathan Mahler, a New York Times journalist, is co-author of An A comprehensive 2019 piece about the Murdochs. “But to designate an heir would be an admission of his mortality.”
“Empire of Influence”Originally produced for CNN+, the original documentary was long before Warner Bros. Discovery dropped the floundering startup and hired Chris Licht to help give the network a more neutral tone. For that reason, it’s all the more impressive how restrained its portrait of Murdoch turned out to be. However, it’s not that all punches are pulled.
“Empire” pays particular attention to Murdoch’s willingness to tell potential sellers – once-liberal bastions like Australia’s The Daily Telegraph, London’s News of the World and The New York Post in particular – that he has no plans to meddle with their editorial policy … then do Just like thatFrom the moment he takes the keys to his front door.
“He was,” says Roger Stone (yes, That Roger Stone!) “the most ruthless man in business history.”
But Murdoch’s broken promises weren’t a mere matter of publishing right-wing opinion and leaning into visceral, tabloid-heavy muck. The first two episodes, which aired Sunday, also dive into Murdoch’s aggressive political meddling, from using the post to anoint New York City Mayor Ed Koch in 1977 to helping deliver New York State in 1980 for a victorious Ronald Reagan (a favor he would call in many times, from expedited U.S. citizenry to the extraordinary FCC exception he was granted in order to buy TV stations in markets where he already owned newspapers).
“The newspaper can create great controversies, it can throw light on injustice,” a young Murdoch calmly tells an interviewer in the late ’60s. “Just as it can do the opposite, it can hide things and be a great power for evil.”
His own words – but a typical CNN viewer who might be hoping to see Murdoch with horns and a pitchfork will be disappointed. You might even be able to see a younger, more forward-thinking Murdoch with dark hair and eyebrows. He is still recognizable by the happy half-smile that he wears to this day.
And whatever pathos Murdoch bears on the surface seems to come from his father – Sir Keith Murdoch, himself a self-made newspaper mogul in the time of the World Wars, who was by all accounts “hard”And “cold”To his oldest son.
“He didn’t think Rupert had what it took,”Jim Rutenberg also co-authored the New York Times piece in 2019 reporting on which much of “Empire” relies.
Rupert was in the United States studying abroad at the time Keith Murdoch’s death. His father had died by the time he reached home and his mother had sold half of her newspaper holdings. With only a single Adelaide newspaper left to start with, Murdoch felt cheated – and went on a mission to restore the other half (and with the steamroller forging ahead, certainly didn’t stop there).
Rupert Murdoch, who is a father, has been described as loving, attentive, and sometimes even present, to his children. And when he was, he stoked interest in the media in his boys (Elisabeth wasn’t considered a contender early on because of her gender, though that changed as she began to show her acumen as she grew).
“He was not raising children, he was raising media moguls,” Mahler says. “This is the origin story of three children whose entire lies would be shaped by the pursuit of one thing.”
But in terms of handicapping the race to take over Murdoch’s vast wealth and influence, “Empire”By the end Episode 2, there is no clear winner “Elisabeth is very savvy, very cunning,”Rutenberg said that the closest thing to an endorsement for a candidate is in “Empire.” “She’s the most like Rupert.”
Lachlan is portrayed as the most ambitious, openly gunning for the job – and currently co-heads Fox with his father. James, at first seemingly disinterested in his father’s Machiavellian schemes, becomes a player as the TV piece of the puzzle takes centerstage.
Sure enough, by Episode 2, we’re beginning to see Murdoch’s blooming interest in television in the ’80s. With that big assist from Reagan, he makes a huge gamble on buying Metromedia TV stations for $2 billion, then 20th Century Fox for $575 million – the ingredients he would need to create NewsCorp and, by proxy, Fox News.
“He has a great vision for what it’s lacking in the landscape, not only in print but in television,”Maury Povich (whose “Inside Edition”This would give you an early glimpse of the Murdoch TV ethos.
“Empire” might not deliver any new revelations about the Murdoch family saga, but does an admirable job of weaving together the arc of a family story that has now touched 10 decades – and shows no signs of coming to a conclusion soon.