How Skilled Actor Rupert Murdoch Was Muzzled By The PR Big Guns
RUPERT Murdoch lost his way 50 years ago when his dad died and left him a small newspaper in Melbourne. The media empire he built was a triumph; a magnificent edifice in the tradition of the Far East. He is the Taipan of all Taipans.
A complete waste of his life. Rupert Murdoch had more much more to give the world.
He can project a story with the combined talents of the entire Royal Shakespeare Company.
The Oscar awards panel should be receiving at least three nominations for the 80-year-old Thespian; Best Actor, Best Comedy performance and Best Double Act for father and son Rupert and James Murdoch. They should already be labelled and bagged for the old boy.
A veritable master of the dramatic arts, judging from the speed at which he learned his lines from the world’s top spin doctors and faultlessly delivered them at the UK Commons Select Committee yesterday
You may not read it in the UK press but the story by Paul Thomasch on Reuters US site gets it spot on and shows there is still a genuine news angle in the London dramas of yesterday. It is a classic example of journalism at it best and a team looking for the story beneath the obvious.
Reuters named the Murdoch Public Relations team, which assembled in London late last week, as including outside advisers Alex Bigg and James Lundie from Edelman, the world’s biggest PR firm, and New York communications star Steven Rubenstein from Rubenstein Public Relations, the New York Post‘s own flack with long ties to Murdoch.
(“David Laws boyfriend, James Lundie is a director at spin-merchants Edelman, he is a former adviser to both Charles Kennedy and Paddy Ashdown when they were respectively leaders of the Liberal Democrats.” More here)
‘Murdoch turns to PR elite for crisis control’ is the Reuters headline and picks out the fact the man who says his companies employ 52,000 … some who may be among the world’s best journalists and wordsmiths …has had to turn to the flimflam men. They are the good guys who train you to ice the cake to look the way you want it to be rather than the flat sponge it is.
Look for the fact the New York end of the News Corp operation is also gathering New York’s finest image makers around it. News Corp is the Public Relations Treasure Island for the next few months.
Rupert yesterday showed what a great job they had done. He was sorry, he was contrite, he was frail but still in control, he was Churchill the man to fight for what is right.
He nearly blew it (the anger flashed and was quickly dowsed)when the committee would not let him read the PR giants’ prepared statement at the start of the proceedings… … but the Last Act was he got in the ‘Regrets? I have a few I will be forced to mention’ statement once the custard pie man had called and been removed by the Woodentops – who had not seen him coming.
Just one word of caution: if you believe all of what was said by Laurel and Hardy James (main speaking part) and Rupert Murdoch and the hand wringing of Lady Macbeth-Brooks… for safety’s sake beware of the smile on the face of the tiger.
It’s all just theatre, the Catch 22 is Rupert Murdoch treats the whole world as his own stage. – Alan White
Posted: 20th, July 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (10) | TrackBack | Permalink
