Television
Think again, Rupert
Edward Heathcoat Amory
Daylight, warned Bagehot, 'must not be let in upon the magic'. The family behind the institution must remain, he argued, in the shadows. The Victorian sage, however, had no idea how importu- nate press and public would become. In the absence of facts, they make up stories, many untrue, some hurtful. The temptation grows to lower the publicity drawbridge, and open the castle gates a chink. Let the people see how human you are, say the Public relations advisers. Show them that You're a family like any other. So, eventual- ly, the first fatal step is taken. For the Windsors, it was a programme called Majesty. For the House of Murdoch, it was The Real Rupert Murdoch (Channel 4, Sun- day).
Mr Murdoch has always had a had press for his commercial activities, but his private life has remained obscure. The doctrine of mutually assured destruction (MAD) dis- courages media magnates from publishing stories about each other's private lives. No one wants to start a war that they cannot win. But now Mr Murdoch has voluntarily surrendered his privacy. In doing so, he has begun a process which he will come to regret. The discreet charms of Majesty soon gave way to the more vulgar pleasures of It's A Royal Knock Out, and from there to tabloid obsession with the sex life and eat- ing disorders of Prince Charles and his for- mer wife.
Like Majesty, this peek into the Murdoch family made compelling viewing. It estab- lished some great characters. His mother, Dame Elizabeth Murdoch, makes a mag- nificent matriarch, telling us that she has chastised her son about 'hurtful. . digging into personal affairs'. His sister Janet told us how the young Rupert had persuaded her to collect sheep dung, which he then sold for a profit. His daughter Prudence revealed that her father dismissed her as 'fuddy-duddy' because she wondered why Page Three girls had to be `so naked'. With this supporting cast, a good producer could launch the most successful soap of all time.
Dominating them all, of course, is the towering figure of Mr Murdoch himself. His corporate life history is extraordinary, and his success has been built on a founda- tion of hard work and gambles which have only just come off. In the programme, which took a sympathetic line, he came across as a hard man, but a basically decent one, prepared to acknowledge that the recent failure of his second marriage was a price that his wife had paid for his unswerv- ing commitment to work.
This fleeting glimpse, however, far from sating the public's appetite, will leave them longing for more. Murdoch's life and fami- ly are far more interesting than the Wind- sors. His political journey from a `socialist' with a bust of Lenin in his rooms at Worcester College, to a man who, accord- ing to his son, James, has 'homed in on a libertarian ideal' is a story in itself. So is the history of Wapping, which changed the British newspaper industry. Then there is the creation of Sky, which transformed our small screen world. He can even be credit- ed with inventing the modern British tabloid newspaper, as he steered the Sun from a trade union mouthpiece to the rau- cous voice of a nation.
All this is without even considering the building of his Australian empire, the cre- ation of a fourth major American television network, and his recent expansion into China. His private life is also a mine of opportunity. He has four children, three of whom are potential inheritors of his dynasty. Unlike the House of Windsor, it remains far from clear which, if any, will seize the throne when he leaves. He has been married twice, and now has a new girlfriend, who comes from mainland China. He still dominates the lives of many of his employees, years after they have stopped working for him. With all this material, how can one hour on Channel 4 possibly do him justice? The public, he will be told, needs to know more. He has a duty, he will discover, to live his life in the glass case of celebrity. His viewers, listen- ers, readers and shareholders demand it.
Whatever Mr Murdoch hoped to gain from this foray into the public eye, it was not worth the price he could end up pay- ing. His media machine has been partly responsible for dragging the royal family from the mysterious shadows into the harsh, sordid public glare. But he knows that this would never have been possible without their active co-operation. Unless he wants his own family to share the same fate, he should never co-operate with another television programme. News Corporation should raise the drawbridge, and the Murdoch family should fade back into the precious anonymity from which they have now, briefly, emerged.
Previous page
