Rupert Murdoch Versus William Randolph Hearst
Media has always been the tool that makes prime ministers stoop down and beg to the great press barons.
Both men separated only by time, but neither the less important.
As phone hacking scandals destroys the reputation of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, is it important to look back at this warning that has lasted for a century and is still growing
Can newspapers affect election results?
William Randolph Hearst was an American and born into a millionaire family of Scottish origin. His newspaper was the San Francisco Examiner, where he practised getting all the talented reporters he could lay his hands on.
By the 1920s William owned a nationwide string of 28 newspapers and started to diversify and own magazines like Good Housekeeping.
He was a devoted democratic supporter and became the Mayor of New York and the governor of the state of New York. After the war he started to make his name across Europe by attacking the opposition to the newly-made League Of Nations as well as opposing the British Empire.
In the thirties he sealed his name forever by helping Franklin Roosevelt become President of the USA. His powerful articles were grand and inspiring and helped to capture the minds and most importantly the votes.
Rupert Murdoch was brought up in a similar background but in Australia. His family were rich and when his father died he took over the family business. His newspaper company grew to a size where the company owned the Sydney afternoon paper The Daily Mirror, and Fairfax Newspapers' Sydney Morning Herald and Daily Telegraph. Like William Hearst, his tactic was to buy failing newspapers and turn them around.
Soon his name was world-recognised and the politicians were beginning to worry about the impact that one man can have on an election bid. In the year 1992 a headline came out of The Sun which is run by News International: It’s The Sun Wot Won It.
This was due to the fact that the newspapers had been mudslinging at the labour paper. This was even admitted by the Tories themselves.
This is becoming more evident in today’s society, that the public image of anyone can be changed by the media and their ability to dig up dirt on anyone who doesn’t suck up to them.
This is the fact that the pen is mightier that the sword.
1 Comment – Post a comment
kimbruce
Commented 10 months ago - 22nd July 2011 - 07:31am
Through parliamentary hearings for the News of the Planet phone hacking problem, 80-year-old Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a man wielding a shaving cream pie. But the actual news was the female in Murdoch's corner. Wendi Deng, 42, launched an immediate counter-offensive against the man who would smear her spouse in his worst time. Her destructive left hook, right-handed palm strike and burning spirit have launched Deng to the name of “Tiger Mom,” replacing writer Amy Chua's stern matriarch. Here is the proof: Tiger Mom Wendi Deng smacks down Murdoch cream pie assailant.