Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires
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Page 91 One episode stood out: “A Climate of Confusion,” Australian, January 16, 2006.
Page 91 significant funding from the family of his younger sister: Paul Barry, “The Power Index: Rich Crusaders No. 6,” Crickey.com.au, March 7, 2012.
Page 92 At the Beacon Theater in New York City: “Rupert Murdoch’s Speech on Carbon Neutrality,” text of Murdoch speech, Australian, May 10, 2007.
Page 92 James Murdoch’s wife, Kathryn: Environmental Defense Fund and Clinton Foundation websites; EDF official, interview by author.
Page 92 The elder Murdoch had been won over: Marc Gunther, “Rupert Murdoch’s Climate Crusade,” Fortune, August 27, 2007. My description of the efforts of each News Corp division is partially drawn from this account and from the corporation’s own videos and statements at gei.newscorp. com. Blair’s presence at the Pebble Beach retreat had been previously disclosed, as in Gaby Hinsliff, “The PM, the Mogul, and the Secret Agenda,” Observer (UK), July 22, 2006.
Page 93 “Global warming is a crime for which we are all guilty”: Kiefer Sutherland’s appearance on News Corp promotional tape no longer available, but previously accessed on company’s global energy initiative website: http://gei.newscorp.com/video/2008/07/24-climate-change-psa.html.
Page 93 Asa Wahlquist . . . said she fought with editors: “Audio Backs Tweets in Editor’s Defamation Row,” ABC (Australia), November 29, 2010. Audio available at www.abc.net.au/news/2010–11–29/audio-backs-tweets-in-editors-defamation-row/2355368.
Page 94 a study examining how her country’s newspapers handled: Bacon, Sceptical Climate, www.acij.uts.edu.au/pdfs/sceptical-climate-part1.pdf. Other figures and insights taken from that study are cited in the body of this chapter. Additional quotations in this chapter drawn from author’s interview with Bacon.
Page 96 disclosures to an environmental group: Carbon Disclosure Project, www.cdproject.net/en-US/Results/Pages/leadership-index.aspx.
Page 96 Ailes said soberly, looking at the camera: News Corp Global Energy Initiative website. Ailes appears for about thirty-six seconds in http://gei.newscorp.com/video/2008/06/global-energy-initiative-intro.html. By late 2004, the consensus of researchers in the field was captured by Naomi Oreskes, “Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change,” Science, December 3, 2004, www.sciencemag.org/content/306/5702/1686.full#affiliation. Fox did execute a special on global warming presenting that consensus a year later, The Heat Is On: The Case of Global Warming, hosted by Rick Folbaum, Fox News Channel, November 13, 2005. But the following spring, some doubt was cast in another special: Global Warming: The Debate Continues, hosted by David Asman, Fox News Channel, May 21, 2006.
Page 97 Hart found Fox far more likely than its competitors: “Market Influences on Climate Change Frames in CNN and Fox News Climate Change Broadcasts,” P.S. Hart, 2008. Paper presented at the International Communication Association Annual Meeting, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Page 97 Fox was far more likely to cover global warming: Lauren Feldman et al., “Climate on Cable: The Nature and Impact of Global Warming Coverage on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC,” International Journal of Press/Politics, 2011.
Page 98 “Given the controversy over the veracity of climate change data”: Ben Dimiero, “FoxLeaks: Fox Boss Ordered Staff to Cast Doubt on Climate Science,” Media Matters, December 15, 2010.
Page 98 an overwhelming imbalance in Fox’s coverage: Aaron Huertas and Dena Adler, “Is News Corp Failing Science? Representations of Climate Science on Fox News Channel and in the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page,” Union of Concerned Scientists, September 2012.
Page 98 The day before I met Professor Bacon: “Sixteen Concerned Scientists: No Need to Panic About Global Warming,” Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2012. The paper also received sharp rebuttals from scholars: Kevin Trenberth et al., “Check with Climate Scientists for Views on Climate,” Wall Street Journal, letter to the editor, February 1, 2012; William D. Nordhaus, “Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong,” New York Review of Books, March 22, 2012.
Page 99 “obviously there is doubt”: Matthew Thompson, “News Ltd Carbon Coverage Campaigning Not Reporting; New Report + News Response,” Conversation, December 1, 2011.
Page 99 Bacon’s work made the cut: “History’s Headliners,” Australian, December 9, 1999. The article listed the top 100 “historic people, stories, books, and events” that defined twentieth-century Australian journalism. Bacon was listed for her work at the National Times in the mid-1980s with several other “talented, aggressive reporters.”
Page 99 Manne wrote a lengthy critique: Robert Manne, interview by author.
Page 100 calling competing newspapers . . . “propagandists”: Andrew Bolt, “Feeling Burned over a Cause for Concern,” Herald Sun, April 16, 2008.
Page 100 “News Ltd was to become a ‘green’ company”: Former News Corp executive; Robert Manne; Andrew Jaspan; Monica Attard, interviews by author.
Page 100 Dame Elisabeth Murdoch . . . signed a letter: Michael Gordon, “Climate Crusader: Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Joins Public Campaign for a Price on Carbon,” The Age (Melbourne), June 15, 2011.
Page 101 Piers Akerman of News Corp’s Sydney Daily Telegraph: Piers Akerman on The Insiders on ABC (Australia), June 19, 2011.
Page 101 “Greens and their crazy cronies”: As cited in “Climate Criticism Allowed,” Sydney Daily Telegraph, July 5, 2012; Adjudication no. 1542 by Australian Press Council. John Newton/Sydney Daily Telegraph, July 5, 2012.
Page 101 “Climate change very slow but real”: Rupert Murdoch, Twitter feed, @rupertmurdoch: https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/status/223097765427818496.
Chapter 9
The reporting that informs Chapter 9 was influenced by multiple interviews and less-formal conversations with Juan Williams. I was additionally aided by conversations with NPR senior Washington editor Ron Elving, NPR correspondent and Fox News analyst Mara Liasson, former NPR senior vice president for news Ellen Weiss, former NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, as well as several NPR board members and member station general managers and NPR producers and editors who spoke on condition they were not named. An earlier interview I conducted with Roger Ailes also helped me understand how he looks at the role that reporters for other news outlets play for Fox when they are paid to appear as the network’s analysts.
Page 103 the facts did not match the legend: David Folkenflik, “Marshall May Not Have Tried to Enroll in UM Law School,” Baltimore Sun, August 20, 1995. The late Carl T. Rowan; Juan Williams, interviews by author.
Page 104 women at the Washington Post: Howard Kurtz, “Post Reporter Williams Apologizes for ‘Inappropriate’ Verbal Conduct,” Washington Post, November 2, 1991.
Page 104 I profiled Williams: David Folkenflik, “Juan Williams Fills Two Roles,” Baltimore Sun, April 25, 2001.
Page 104 some of those colleagues: The following paragraphs draw on the author’s interviews with Juan Williams and five NPR colleagues.
Page 105 Williams seemed at his most empathetic: Juan Williams, “President Bush, Part 1: The Interview,” All Things Considered, January 29, 2007.
Page 105 Many listeners . . . believed he had veered: “Letters: Overplaying Bush,” All Things Considered, February 1, 2007.
Page 106 Scott Simon occasionally weighed in: Scott Simon, “Even Pacifists Must Support This War,” op-ed, Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2001.
Page 106 Williams backed the Bush administration’s stance: Juan Williams, “Don’t Mourn Brown v. Board of Education,” op-ed, New York Times, June 29, 2007.
Page 106 NPR turned down the offer: Howard Kurtz, “NPR Rebuffs White House on Bush Talk,” Washington Post, September 25, 2007. Irena Briganti’s quotation is also from Kurtz’s article.
Page 107 an expectation among many of NPR’s liberal listeners: Author’s personal experience.
Page 107 commentators had raised rumors: Roger Stone, interview by Geraldo Rivera, Fox News, June 1, 2008; others, suc
h as Bob Beckel, spoke of a “shoe going to drop” involving Michelle Obama explaining why Hillary Clinton stayed in the Democratic primary past the point of mathematical hopes of prevailing.
Page 107 “Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress”: Juan Williams, O’Reilly Factor, January 26, 2009.
Page 107 “not out of the realm of mainstream political discourse”: Alicia Shepard, “Juan Williams, NPR, and Fox,” NPR Ombudsman column, February 11, 2009, NPR.org.
Page 108 NPR had repeatedly asked Fox to stop identifying Williams: One NPR editor; one NPR public relations staffer; and two Fox News public relations staffers, interview by author.
Page 108 He could not believe the angst: Juan Williams’s concerns derived from author’s multiple conversations and interviews with Williams.
Page 108 NPR executives had their own concerns: Reservations from NPR leadership derived from author’s interviews with multiple NPR executives, political editors, and show editors both before and after his termination by the network.
Page 108 On an episode of ABC’s Chat show The View: Bill O’Reilly, The View, October 14, 2010.
Page 108 received an attaboy from Williams: Juan Williams, O’Reilly Factor, October 18, 2010.
Page 108 Weiss terminated Williams’s contract early: David Folkenflik, “NPR Ends Juan Williams’s Contract after Muslim Remarks,” NPR.org, October 21, 2010; Folkenflik, “NPR Dismisses News Analyst Juan Williams,” All Things Considered; stories in ensuing days about the unfolding crisis for the network.
Chapter 10
Page 110 Vivian Schiller, speaking to the Atlanta Press Club: As reported in David Folkenflik, “Fox News Gives Juan Williams $2 Million Contract,” Morning Edition, October 22, 2010.
Page 111 Glenn Beck used Williams’s termination: All quotations from Beck, Baier, and other Fox News personalities are taken from footage and transcripts of Fox News programs on the night of October 21, 2010, including Beck, Special Report, O’Reilly Factor, and Hannity.
Page 112 Octavia Nasr was forced out for a tweet: Keach Hagey, “CNN’s Firing of Octavia Nasr Protested,” Politico, July 8, 2010, among others.
Page 112 Rick Sanchez also had been dumped by the network: “Rick Sanchez Fired from CNN,” Huffington Post, October 1, 2010, among others.
Page 113 “When is somebody giving his or her opinion?”: Barbara Walters, The View, ABC, October 21, 2010.
Page 113 NewsBusters revived comments: Nina Totenberg, Inside Washington, July 8, 1995, www.youtube.com/watch?v=7msrF1V4NeY; Totenberg, interview by author; David Folkenflik, “Totenberg on Helms Comment: ‘It Was a Stupid Remark,’” NPR.org, October 26, 2010.
Page 113 Jesse Watters . . . confronted Schiller: Watters, O’Reilly Factor, October 25, 2010.
Page 113 News Corp had become a participant: See, for example, Keach Hagey, “Fox Parent’s Donation Causes a Stir,” Politico, August 17, 2010; Jim Rutenberg, “With Another $1 Million Donation, Murdoch Expands His Political Sphere,” New York Times, October 1, 2010.
Page 114 “Roger [Ailes] may not have given the Tea Party life”: Chris Ruddy, interview by author; Ruddy made similar remarks in Gabriel Sherman, “The Elephant in the Green Room,” New York Magazine, May 22, 2011.
Page 114 Officials at some NPR member stations: Author interviews with fifteen member station officials.
Page 114 “will never forgive NPR”: Chris Wallace, interview by author.
Page 114 “Are you kidding me, NPR?” Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, October 25, 2010.
Page 114 Murdoch’s son-in-law, Matthew Freud: David Carr and Tim Arango, “A Fox Chief at the Pinnacle of Media and Politics,” New York Times, January 10, 2010.
Page 114 Roger Ailes shot back that Freud “needs to see a psychiatrist”: Joe Flint, “Roger Ailes Says He’s Not Going Anywhere, and News Corp’s Chase Carey Concurs,” Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2010.
Page 115 Ailes attacked once again: Howard Kurtz, “Fox News Chief Blasts NPR ‘Nazis,’” Daily Beast, November 17, 2010.
Page 115 fit neatly with the extreme rhetoric: As did others, I catalogued some of Beck’s invocations of Nazis in describing the Obama White House and other liberals in David Folkenflik, “Fox News Nazi Rhetoric Starts at the Top,” All Things Considered, November 19, 2010.
Page 115 evoked elements of anti-Semitic slurs: Deborah Lipstadt, interview by author. Subsequent quotations from Lipstadt are derived from that interview.
Page 116 Milbank found Beck had referred: Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has written extensively about Beck’s rhetoric in his book Tears of a Clown.
Page 116 Ailes ultimately apologized: Alex Welprin, “Roger Ailes Apologizes to ADL for Calling NPR Officials Nazis,” TVNewser.com, November 18, 2010.
Page 116 In a subsequent book, Muzzled: Juan Williams, Muzzled. Quotations drawn from author’s interview with Williams. David Folkenflik, “In Muzzled, Juan Williams Tells His Side of the Story,” All Things Considered, July 27, 2011.
Page 117 The record tends to belie his perception: Williams’s previous book Enough was featured in a lengthy interview with Steve Inskeep: “Juan Williams on African-American Victimhood,” Morning Edition, August 7, 2006.
Page 118 Weiss resigned: David Folkenflik, “NPR V.P. Resigns, CEO Rebuked Over Williams’ Firing,” Morning Edition, January 7, 2011.
Page 118 Schiller was ousted a few months later: David Folkenflik, “Vivian Schiller, CEO of NPR, Steps Down,” Morning Edition, March 9, 2011. The original thirteen-minute excerpt of tapes: Matthew Boyle, “NPR Executives Caught on Tape Bashing Conservatives and Tea Party, Touting Liberals,” Daily Caller, March 8, 2011. Glenn Beck’s conservative news site, the Blaze, compared the tapes and showed them to be a distortion of how the two-hour lunch had played out: Scott Baker, “Does Raw Video of NPR Expose Reveal Questionable Editing and Tactics?” the Blaze, March 10, 2011. I reviewed the tapes with colleagues and outside experts for an additional analysis for Morning Edition that reached the same conclusion: “Key Elements of NPR Gotcha Video Taken Out of Context,” Morning Edition, March 14, 2011.
Chapter 11
Page 119 “crocked by a ten-year-old” Clive Goodman, “Black Adder,” News of the World, November 6, 2005.
Page 120 Mulcaire told a sideline reporter: Contemporaneous video of Mulcaire’s goal and sideline video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8826wD-XLE; “Glenn Mulcaire: Awful Bloke, Decent Footballer,” New Statesman, July 6, 2011.
Page 120 the time was right: Peter Burden, “‘NoW’ Hacker Had Beans to Spill and a Crust to Earn,” Independent, July 19, 2011.
Page 120 had adopted a bit of cloak and dagger: Michael Silverleaf QC, letter to Tom Crone, June 3, 2008, published as attachment JCP 20–26 in written evidence to House Select Committee on Culture, Media, and Sport inquiry on News International and Hacking (henceforth CMS report).
Page 120 a surprisingly easy task: Author’s interview with Mark Stephens, lawyer for multiple targets of cell phone mail hacking.
Page 121 police turned up more than 11,000 pages: James Robinson, “Phone Hacking: Met to Pass Glenn Mulcaire Papers to Litigants,” Guardian, June 27, 2011.
Page 121 he had done nothing wrong: “Full Text of Clive Goodman’s Letter to News International,” Independent, August 16, 2011.
Page 122 the first in a pair of payments: News International and Phone-Hacking, Eleventh Report from House of Commons Committee on Culture, Media, and Sport, April 30, 2012, part 3.
Page 122 outside lawyers had done an extensive review: Les Hinton, testimony before House of Commons Committee on Culture, Media, and Sport, September 15, 2009.
Page 123 “We like being pirates”: As cited in Lloyd Grove, “Rupe’s Attack Dog Gets Bitten, Keeps Barking,” New York Magazine, September 10, 2007.
Page 123 “We’re like a pirate ship”: Senior Wall Street Journal news executive, interview by author.
Page 123 On the parent corporation’s board: News Corp annual report 2011; News Corp website, section on corporate governa
nce, www.newscorp.com/corp_gov/bod.html.
Page 124 far from the corridors of power: Nick Davies, interview by author; this interview formed the basis of Folkenflik, “Guardian Reporter Rocks Murdoch Empire,” All Things Considered, July 11, 2011. Subsequent Davies quotes also from author’s interviews of Lewis.
Page 125 Working in parallel to Nick Davies: Mark Lewis, interview by author; this interview formed the basis of David Folkenflik, “Lawyer Follows News Corp, Hacking to U.S.,” All Things Considered, April 12, 2012. Subsequent Lewis quotations are derived from author’s interviews unless otherwise noted.
Page 126 Painstakingly annotated documents sat undisturbed: Don Van Natta Jr., Jo Becker, and Graham Bowley, “Tabloid Hack on Royals, and Beyond,” New York Times Magazine, September 5, 2010.
Page 126 News of the World had agreed to pay: News of the World memorandum of contract with “Paul Williams,” unsigned, dated February 4, 2005, CMS report attachment JCP 27. This account is supplemented by information disclosed in the Linklaters letter on behalf of News Corp Management and Standards Committee to John Whittingdale MP, August 15, 2011; Crone, email to Myler, May 24, 2008; transcript of Pike notes of call with Colin Myler, May 27, 2008, CMS report, attachment JCP7.
Page 126 Mark Lewis demanded documents: Mark Lewis, interview by author.
Page 127 Myler wasn’t happy—it was a mess: Transcript of Pike notes of call with Colin Myler.
Page 127 first true corporate reckoning: Silverleaf, letter, June 3, 2008.
Page 128 Under British law: British lawyers, interviews by author. The characterization draws on Theodore Eisenberg and Geoffrey P. Miller, “The English Versus the American Rule on Attorney Fees: An Empirical Study of Public Company Contracts,” Cornell Law Review, January 2013.
Page 128 “drew a line in the sand”: Julian Pike, record of attendance, June 3, 2008, CMS report, JCP 8.
Page 128 “wanted to be vindicated or be rich”: Pike, record of attendance, June 6, 2008, CMS report, JCP 11.
Page 128 “it is as bad as we feared”: Colin Myler, email to James Murdoch, June 7, 2008, contained in Linklaters letter to Whittingdale, December 12, 2011.