WHAT DOES KING RUPERT WANT?
I pray the Wall Street Journal's WASPY owners, the Bancroft family, decide not to go down in history for selling the Journal to the elderly pirate.
Ugh.
Rupert Murdoch craves the Wall Street Journal in order to satisfy his unusual lust for more than any other human being can possibly imagine.
During the early 1970's, I had dinner with Murdoch and Clay Felker in Murdoch's rented house in Southhampton. Murdoch's daughter and son served steak and fresh baby peas.
Flawlessly tasteful. Intimate. A stealthy trap.
I was there because I was a weekend houseguest of Clay Felker, then publisher of New York magazine.
Clay Felker had no inkling that Murdoch was secretly positioning himself to steal New York magazine out from under him.
For Murdoch, the dinner party was a high-level espionage mission.
Clay was loquacious throughout the meal. He explained Manhattan things to Murdoch who he clearly saw as a bit of a rube. Clay waxed eloquent about his writers Aaron Latham and Gail Sheehy (who were present). He explained me too in terms of Ms Magazine which he'd helped launch and where I wrote and edited.
Clay confided to Murdoch that he got his best stories by listening to dinner party conversation.
Clay got no stories at the Murdoch dinner. Murdoch said almost nothing. He asked one or two
flattering questions.
A month or so later, Murdoch seized New York magazine and instantly fired Clay Felker, despite assurances to the contrary.
I soon observed that Murdoch used New York magazine---used it as if it were a hooker's purse. (If my metaphors shift too much, apologies.)
For example, when New York magazine's editor-in-chief assigned a cover story on a new bride of Ron Perelman, Murdoch obliged Perelman by killing the article.
Sort of a secret handshake among predators.
It happened fast: Perelman just called his pr man Howard Rubinstein, who still serves as one of Murdoch's fixers.
Murdoch has changed the face of journalism here and in England--allegations, nasty innuendo, and scandal sell the New York Post and Fox tv.
Scary.
Enough already.
Imagine what Rupert will do to the international business scene with the Wall Street Journal.