Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Rupert Murdoch: Nicholas Lemann and Hendrik Hertzberg on the Political Scene: Audio : The New Yorker

This I liked because it reveals more of the Rupert Murdoch situation and the News of the World scandal in the UK in an intelligent way. Liked this 14 min conversation because it ties it in nicely in relation to the ever-changing political scene. Have this on in the background while drinking your morning coffee or while leafing through the paper as it really is an interesting perspective about this modern day, William Randolph Hearst-type persona.

A quote I liked from the conversation was:

Nicholas Leeman talks about a 'medium sized media-mogul' friend's views on Murdoch:

"The thing about Rupert that's extraordinary is not that he moves quickly, but that he gets out of mistakes so quickly. Most people have too much pride and they stick with bad decisions, but he cuts bait. And the example in the non-political area would be MySpace, He's a kind of buccaneer who moves in and out of things very dramatically and quickly on instinct unpredictably in ways that are hard to pull off for other people in business."

I think this quote sums up what is so interesting about Murdoch as a character. His empire, his balls-out bravado and now with the hearings involving tabloid daily newspapers, his trying to clean up the mess he helped create.

The lessons learned segment at the end is timely as well:
Why is it ok for certain journalists to publish hacked phone conversations when they are in regards to abuse of power but not in regards to everything.....? Fascinating.

Posted via email from Things I like this week

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