from Portfolio.com
Portfolio has taken a bit of a beating in the press since its launch, but we have nothing but praise for this item squeezing new insight out of a six-year-old quote and saying something completely original on the whole Rupert Murdoch-WSJ thing, which at this point is pretty damn hard to do. Portfolio's Amy Wallace dug up this quote from 2001, from an interview of Murdoch by Charlie Rose during his negotiatons to buy DirectTV from General Motors. Murdoch, now 76, said he felt "pretty bad" about approaching 70 that year, and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket to reveal the following breakdown of his life:
"I have lived for 613,000 hours," he said, consulting what appeared to be a handwritten tally. "201,000 of them were in childhood, youth, and thoroughly sort of inadequate education. That leaves 412,000. You take a third of that for sleep and rest. So I'm down to 275,000 hours."I take out a month for holidays, at least half a weekend, family time, evenings, etcetera, and you're down to at the very maximum a couple hundred thousand hours I've been at work.
"And then I go: 'What have I done? How much time have I wasted in endless meetings with no decisions? Industry conferences? Company conferences? Studying overlong reports?' Yeah, I guess I've wasted at least half my life.
"So that gets me down to perhaps 100,000 useful hours. Pretty bad figures. So if I'm pretty healthy and have a normal life expectancy -- I'm a bit optimistic -- I've got about another 175,000 hours to go, of which maybe I can spend 75,000 productively at work. Alright? Or 70,000 say.
"So I've just got to see that each one of those hours is well spent. And hopefully it won't all be spent talking to General Motors."
And you thought you were overscheduled. Portfolio picked up Rupe's pen and crunched the numbers since then (that is to say, the 53,000 hours that have passed and the 48,800 or so more he has left to go, according to his own initial estimate). Then they put it in handy chart form that ETP totally poached for our illustration (thanks, Porfolio!). Great, smart, creative, out-of-the-box item. We likey.
And also, an epiphany! This whole accounting process jogged our brains, and before we knew it we were singing absent-mindedly out loud from New York magazine's favorite band, The Eagles:
I could have done so many things, baby,
If I could only stop my mind
From wonderin' what I left behind
And from worrying 'bout this wasted time.
After I wept and took some medication, I got to thinking: Hmm. Rupert Murdoch was something of a Desperado, a guy who went from ridin' fences in the Australian Outback to livin' Life in the Fast Lane. There are plenty of people at the WSJ who worry that someone is gonna hurt someone before that deal is through, and that there ain't no way to hide his Lyin' Eyes when it comes to pulling stories 
or pushing agendas (though, to be fair, Rupe seems to be Takin' It Easy on the Bancrofts, offering them a seat on the NewsCorp board and promising them The Best Of His Love). Will they go the distance? We'll find out In The Long Run; Rupe can handle some resistance, if that deal is a strong one. On the home front, there were definitely those who considered Wendi Deng to be a Witchy Woman (especially when she produced a New Kid in Town, and then another); but, come on, if you married a hottie 40 years your junior wouldn't you have mirrors on the ceiling of your $44-million Fifth Avenue penthouse? (Yeah, Life's Been Good.) In any case, Rupe, ever the patriarch, went a long way to ensuring a Peaceful, Easy Feeling amongst his elder children by naming them his successors in the family trust, though of course he is by no means Already Gone. No, if anyone is going to Take It To The Limit, one more time, it's gonna be Rupe. Which makes him The Eagles of media moguls! Which sort of screws with John Cook's logic, no? Don't ask us; we clearly listen to way too much crappy music.
Oh God, that took way longer than it should have. Lyrics to "Wasted Time" after the jump!
What Makes Murdoch Tick, Tick, Tick... [Portfolio]
Well baby, there you stand
With your little head, down in your hand
Oh, my God, you can't believe it's happening
again
Your baby's gone, and you're all alone
and it looks like the end.
And you're back out on the street.
And you're tryin' to remember.
How will you start it over?
You don't know what became.
You don't care much for a stranger's touch,
But you can't hold your man.
You never thought you'd be alone this far
down the line
And I know what's been on your mind
You're afraid it's all been wasted time
The autumn leaves have got you thinking
about the first time that you fell
You didn't love the boy too much, no, no
you just loved the boy too well, Farewell
So you live from day to day, and you dream
about tomorrow, oh.
And the hours go by like minutes
and the shadows come to stay
So you take a little something to
make them go away
And I could have done so many things, baby
If I could only stop my mind from wonderin' what
I left behind and from worrying 'bout this wasted time
Ooh, another love has come and gone
Ooh, and the years keep rushing on
I remember what you told me before you went out on your own:
"Sometimes to keep it together, we got to leave it alone."
So you can get on with your search, baby, and I can
get on with mine
And maybe someday we will find, that it wasn't really
wasted time
Mm,hm
Oh hoo, ooh, ohh,
Ooh,ooh, mm
