Grumpy Old Men: Redstone Slams Murdoch

Sumner Redstone thinks Rupert Murdoch's obsession with the Wall Street Journal and with newspapers in general is cockamamie and nearly suicidal.

Murdoch and Redstone are as mindful of each other as they are of anybody else in their business. They perhaps understand each other better, too. This is partly generational: They are the two octogenarian media conglomerate owners. And it is partly because they are the only media owners left who have built their companies from the ground up and who continue to control them in a way that pretty much allows them to do whatever they want to do.

In private (though they don't much care who's listening), each enjoys gossiping about the other. For both of them, the main theme of the gossip is how old and faltering the other one is, and how each sees the other as ridiculously determined not to acknowledge it.

I have heard Murdoch go on at length about how Redstone--"that old man"--walks into walls. Equally, I understand Redstone is quite jocular about how Rupert is prone to stopping in mid-sentence and drifting off. I have never first hand heard Redstone on this issue, but I have, first hand, seen Murdoch's trance.

Murdoch talks often about Sumner's women problems and I assume Redstone hasn't missed an opportunity to speculate about Murdoch in that area. Murdoch is always sniggering about Redstone's family, and, equally, I'm sure Sumner hasn't missed a chance when the Murdoch kids cut up (James Murdoch's assault last week on Simon Kelner, boss of Britain's Independent newspaper, undoubtedly made Redstone's day).

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