0:00:02 > 0:00:05Rupert Murdoch - the most powerful media mogul in the world.
0:00:05 > 0:00:08He is accused of dragging Britain's press into the gutter,
0:00:08 > 0:00:13of having contempt for the law, and of contaminating our politics
0:00:13 > 0:00:15and public life.
0:00:15 > 0:00:19That is the conventional view, but let me offer you another.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22Think of Rupert Murdoch as an agent of change
0:00:22 > 0:00:25that struggling post-war Britain urgently needed
0:00:25 > 0:00:30and whose impact has been little short of revolutionary.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33This programme contains some strong language
0:00:34 > 0:00:38He did absolutely come in thinking, "We're going to shake this place up."
0:00:38 > 0:00:43"No," said Murdoch. "Give 'em what they want, the public will decide.
0:00:43 > 0:00:44Always the outsider.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46He'd come in and he had this powerful position.
0:00:46 > 0:00:51But he didn't feel part of it, he felt like a not wanted alien.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53He was like a Martian in our society.
0:00:53 > 0:00:56A ruthless industrial radical.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58I think what he did at Wapping was a masterpiece.
0:00:58 > 0:01:02Rupert Murdoch comes along and liberates the entire British press.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05- That's a single achievement. - He was showing this establishment,
0:01:05 > 0:01:09whether it was the trade union or Fleet Street establishment,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12that he could do it and he was going to deliver.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15And above all, a gambler.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19He said, "I'm sitting here with a cheque for 350 million.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22"Andrew will come round with it now,
0:01:22 > 0:01:24"if you will agree now to the output deal."
0:01:24 > 0:01:26He makes a big bet...
0:01:26 > 0:01:30and then he goes all in on the bet, all in on the bet, right.
0:01:32 > 0:01:34By embracing the changes he delivered,
0:01:34 > 0:01:37we made him rich and powerful.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41And then, a crisis,
0:01:41 > 0:01:46so serious that it threatened to destroy everything he had built.
0:01:46 > 0:01:48Rupert Murdoch, will you tell us what percentage...
0:01:48 > 0:01:50This is the story of Rupert Murdoch's
0:01:50 > 0:01:5340-year battle with Britain.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03It's the 1930s.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08The only son of a wealthy Australian family is growing up in Melbourne.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12The boy's name is Keith Rupert Murdoch.
0:02:13 > 0:02:18His father is Sir Keith, knighted for services to journalism.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21He became famous for exposing the Gallipoli scandal,
0:02:21 > 0:02:23the loss of thousands of young Australians
0:02:23 > 0:02:25during the First World War
0:02:25 > 0:02:29at the behest of "incompetent British commanders".
0:02:29 > 0:02:32The Murdochs are Australian aristocracy
0:02:32 > 0:02:37with a characteristic dose of antagonism to the old country.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Rupert is sent to Geelong Grammar, Australia's Eton
0:02:41 > 0:02:45and delights his father by obtaining a place at Oxford University.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50It will be his first encounter with Britain.
0:02:50 > 0:02:51What he finds there
0:02:51 > 0:02:56will shape his attitude to this country for ever.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03In October 1950, Rupert Murdoch arrived in Oxford,
0:03:03 > 0:03:07right in the heart of chilly post-war, ration book Britain.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11It must have looked a grim prospect for a young Australian
0:03:11 > 0:03:14coming all the way from sunny Melbourne.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16He has come to Worcester College
0:03:16 > 0:03:19to study politics, philosophy and economics.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Peter Grosvenor was a fellow student.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26He was an ambitious would-be politician
0:03:26 > 0:03:29in the Oxford University Labour Club.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33He was an absolute dyed-in-the-wool socialist
0:03:33 > 0:03:37and he had a bust of Lenin in his study, which was incredible.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Murdoch stuck out here, partly because he had a car,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45almost unheard of for undergraduates of the time,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49but mainly because he refused to play by the rules.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55This is how the university magazine, The Cherwell, described him -
0:03:55 > 0:03:59"Rupert Murdoch, cataclysmic chauffeur from the outback.
0:03:59 > 0:04:02"He is known as a brilliant betting man
0:04:02 > 0:04:05"with that individual Billingsgate touch."
0:04:05 > 0:04:07Ouch!
0:04:07 > 0:04:11Almost everything about this place, its tradition, its formality,
0:04:11 > 0:04:13reeked of old establishment Britain,
0:04:13 > 0:04:17none of which appears to have impressed the young Rupert.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21He wrote home to a friend Down Under -
0:04:21 > 0:04:24"Oh, for the bloody sun!
0:04:24 > 0:04:26"If it weren't for good friends, I'd have shot myself
0:04:26 > 0:04:29"in this bloody place long ago.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34"Rain, wind, sleet, slush, shit, snow...
0:04:34 > 0:04:36"and starch."
0:04:36 > 0:04:40In any event, it's pretty clear that many people here
0:04:40 > 0:04:43saw Rupert Murdoch almost exactly as he saw himself -
0:04:43 > 0:04:48as a rebel and an outsider from the very start.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52At the beginning of Rupert's final year at Oxford,
0:04:52 > 0:04:55his father, Sir Keith, died.
0:04:55 > 0:04:59But he'd made one last arrangement to complete his son's education -
0:04:59 > 0:05:03a spell at Lord Beaverbrook's top-selling Daily Express.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10In three years, Rupert Murdoch learned a lot
0:05:10 > 0:05:13about post-war Britain and its privileged elite.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17He'd arrived, remember, as the son of a wealthy Australian media baron
0:05:17 > 0:05:20and been treated like a colonial upstart.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22In three months here, at the Daily Express,
0:05:22 > 0:05:25he learned how to produce a newspaper
0:05:25 > 0:05:28capable of selling four million copies a day.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32In 1953, aged 22, he went back to Australia
0:05:32 > 0:05:37to claim his inheritance from his father, his own first newspaper.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44But although Sir Keith was the most prominent figure
0:05:44 > 0:05:48in Australian journalism, the only newspaper he was able to bequeath
0:05:48 > 0:05:54to his son was a small afternoon tabloid, the Adelaide News.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57This taught Rupert Murdoch a lesson he would never forget.
0:05:57 > 0:06:03Ownership and control were more important than public standing,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07and so he began building an empire.
0:06:09 > 0:06:13And as he did so, Rupert Murdoch developed a formula for success.
0:06:13 > 0:06:16First, snap up a failing newspaper,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19shamelessly popularise it with irreverence and sensation,
0:06:19 > 0:06:24and a no-holds-barred approach to eye-catching scoops.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27A photographer famously disguised himself as a doctor
0:06:27 > 0:06:30to get this picture of singer Marianne Faithfull unconscious
0:06:30 > 0:06:32after a drug overdose.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38By 1968, Rupert Murdoch was a force to be reckoned with.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40He owned five newspapers, including The Australian,
0:06:40 > 0:06:45that country's only national daily, and two TV stations.
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Do you think it's possible people have underestimated you?
0:06:48 > 0:06:50Yes, I think so.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54They had it pretty easy themselves in what they were doing,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58they were doing well, and they didn't see these opportunities,
0:06:58 > 0:07:00because they weren't looking for them
0:07:00 > 0:07:02and when someone else found them,
0:07:02 > 0:07:05they still couldn't believe the opportunities were really there.
0:07:05 > 0:07:09He'd also acquired a reputation for ruthlessness.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12You don't realise, that there's a great deal of iron
0:07:12 > 0:07:15behind the boyish exterior.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19He's a very tough proprietor who, I think, sacked more journalists
0:07:19 > 0:07:24than I think I'd ever seen sacked before in my whole career.
0:07:24 > 0:07:26He's a tremendous sacker but, of course,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29he's also a tremendous hirer.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32So, he's always sacking them and hiring them!
0:07:33 > 0:07:36Rupert Murdoch had become a prominent national figure
0:07:36 > 0:07:39in the Australian media, and yet in Britain,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42he was still virtually unknown.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45But all that was about to change.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51The Rupert Murdoch we've come to know was made in Australia.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54He knows what people want and he sets out to give it to them.
0:07:54 > 0:07:59He's fiercely ambitious, finding and then gambling on opportunities
0:07:59 > 0:08:02others simply don't see, which he then pursues
0:08:02 > 0:08:06with a ruthlessness that shocks even fellow newspaper men.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11Then the chance to expand to the old country drops into his lap.
0:08:11 > 0:08:17The British press establishment has no idea what's about to hit them.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21The News of the World belonged to the Carr family.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23They were pillars of the British establishment
0:08:23 > 0:08:26and had owned the paper since 1891.
0:08:26 > 0:08:29It was the biggest newspaper in the world,
0:08:29 > 0:08:32but Sir William Carr, the then Chairman
0:08:32 > 0:08:34treated it as the family grocery shop, basically.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Sir William was a great connoisseur of Scotch whisky,
0:08:37 > 0:08:39never less than two bottles a day.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44He and the top executives used to go every day to The Savoy Grill for lunch.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47There was a joke it was the office canteen.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51I think they'd become over-confident, and arrogant,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54and they didn't realise that only owning 30% of the shares,
0:08:54 > 0:08:57didn't actually give them control.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59And then in 1968,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02the Carrs discovered to their horror that a young publisher
0:09:02 > 0:09:08called Robert Maxwell was preparing a hostile takeover of THEIR newspaper.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Maxwell wasn't actually his name, he was a Czech called Jan Ludwig Hoch
0:09:13 > 0:09:16and they weren't going to let it fall into the hands of a foreigner.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20Ironically, of course, it ended up with another foreigner,
0:09:20 > 0:09:21Rupert Murdoch.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26Murdoch arrived in London and offered the Carrs a way
0:09:26 > 0:09:31to keep the paper out of Maxwell's hands by allowing him in.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35All he asked for in return was to be made managing director.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38So, when Rupert Murdoch arrived
0:09:38 > 0:09:41- with a slightly more ruthless business sense...- Absolutely, yeah.
0:09:41 > 0:09:43..they were wide open for him?
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Oh, absolutely yes, they were lying there with their legs wide open
0:09:47 > 0:09:49waiting to be screwed, I think, basically.
0:09:51 > 0:09:53At an emergency shareholders' meeting,
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Sir William gave Rupert Murdoch his personal backing.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59Thank you very much.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02And to Maxwell's fury, his bid was thrown out.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06There's been a lot of acrimony throughout the stages of this takeover bid.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08- We've never said anything personal...- Hasn't it developed...
0:10:08 > 0:10:14Yesterday, Mr Maxwell called me a moth-eaten kangaroo! Well,
0:10:14 > 0:10:15we haven't got quite to that stage!
0:10:16 > 0:10:20Sir William had saved his paper from Maxwell,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23but ended up handing it over to Murdoch.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26Within a few months, Carr was shunted upstairs
0:10:26 > 0:10:29to become Life President and Rupert Murdoch took control
0:10:29 > 0:10:32of the biggest-selling English-language newspaper
0:10:32 > 0:10:36in the world. He was just 38 years old.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46He is like a breath of fresh air, in this building,
0:10:46 > 0:10:49in Fleet Street, in the printing industry,
0:10:49 > 0:10:50and by Christ, it's long overdue.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53He's a gambler, an inveterate gambler.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57He's a good Australian businessman, who's come here
0:10:57 > 0:10:59and is going to show you how to do it.
0:10:59 > 0:11:00Just as he had done in Australia,
0:11:00 > 0:11:04Murdoch immediately set about finding a dramatic scoop
0:11:04 > 0:11:09to boost sales of his new paper and he soon got one.
0:11:09 > 0:11:11'They tried to keep this girl's name secret,
0:11:11 > 0:11:13'but suddenly everyone knew it
0:11:13 > 0:11:16'Christine Keeler, the girl who sparked off a drama
0:11:16 > 0:11:20'of government scandal, spying, intrigue and even death.'
0:11:20 > 0:11:24In the summer of 1969, Murdoch paid Christine Keeler
0:11:24 > 0:11:28£21,000 for the exclusive rights to publish her memoirs.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Keeler had been the call girl at the centre of a political sex scandal
0:11:34 > 0:11:36that had forced the resignation of John Profumo,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39the then Minister for War, some six years earlier.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44We've got to lead with it and this is some tremendous news.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48We should take the offensive about this and this controversy
0:11:48 > 0:11:51and if it keeps it boiling for six weeks, so much the better.
0:11:51 > 0:11:53Although it wasn't strictly new,
0:11:53 > 0:11:59the story had all the ingredients of a classic Murdoch headline grabber.
0:11:59 > 0:12:00Do you read a Sunday paper regularly?
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Well, I read all the scandal in the News of the World.
0:12:04 > 0:12:07What do you like particularly about the News of the World?
0:12:07 > 0:12:08Well, all the scandal.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Who's doing someone's old woman and all that.
0:12:13 > 0:12:15But what Murdoch DIDN'T anticipate
0:12:15 > 0:12:18was the outrage the story provoked in polite society,
0:12:18 > 0:12:22who looked on it as shameless muckraking.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24You said, "People can sneer as much as they like,
0:12:24 > 0:12:26"but I'll take the 150,000 copies we're going to sell."
0:12:26 > 0:12:29It suggests that you are, in fact, lining your pocket
0:12:29 > 0:12:31with rather sleazy material.
0:12:31 > 0:12:34Well, I don't agree it's sleazy, for a minute.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39Even Murdoch's Australian wife, Anna was drawn into the controversy.
0:12:39 > 0:12:41- Do you read the News of the World? - Yes, every Sunday.
0:12:41 > 0:12:43- What do you think of it? - It's very good.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45But it doesn't upset you at all, it doesn't worry you...
0:12:45 > 0:12:47- Why should it?- ..that it's that kind of paper?
0:12:47 > 0:12:51I'm very proud it, I think that's a very pretentious thing to say.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54The Keeler memoirs story defined the battle lines
0:12:54 > 0:12:57between Rupert Murdoch and the British liberal establishment.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00Where he saw an important story, but above all
0:13:00 > 0:13:02a great commercial opportunity,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06all they could see was a sorry tale of a scandal rehashed,
0:13:06 > 0:13:11dredged up unnecessarily by an uncultured grasping colonial,
0:13:11 > 0:13:15a man for whom no gutter could be too deep.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17The satirical magazine, Private Eye, summed it up.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19They dubbed him "The Dirty Digger,"
0:13:19 > 0:13:23a name, incidentally, which has stayed with him ever since.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25In just a matter of weeks, Rupert Murdoch had gone
0:13:25 > 0:13:29from virtually unknown to beneath contempt.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32But none of this seems to have bothered Rupert Murdoch.
0:13:32 > 0:13:35He was already looking to apply his mass-market formula
0:13:35 > 0:13:39on a bigger scale - a national daily paper.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43All he needed was the opportunity to buy one.
0:13:48 > 0:13:51The Sun had been a trade union paper,
0:13:51 > 0:13:54but it had lost £12 million in five years
0:13:54 > 0:13:57and its owners, IPC, were ready to sell.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06Murdoch bought it for less than £1 million
0:14:06 > 0:14:11and immediately began reinventing The Sun as a mass-market tabloid.
0:14:11 > 0:14:15He knew what he wanted in a vague way.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20He wanted this paper to steal the clothes of the Daily Mirror,
0:14:20 > 0:14:23but improve them. In other words, be more irreverent than the Mirror,
0:14:23 > 0:14:27saucier than the Mirror, more of an iconoclast.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31The Daily Mirror had been Britain's best-selling tabloid
0:14:31 > 0:14:35for three decades but, in common with the rest of Fleet Street,
0:14:35 > 0:14:38no-one seemed to have noticed that a transformation
0:14:38 > 0:14:40was going on around them.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45The sexual revolution of the '60s had gone mainstream
0:14:45 > 0:14:47and the Mirror's working-class readership
0:14:47 > 0:14:51was looking for something more in tune with the times.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55'Murdoch came here at a time of immense social change
0:14:55 > 0:14:58'in the whole character of the country, and I think'
0:14:58 > 0:14:59he seized that moment,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03realised that people just didn't want interesting news
0:15:03 > 0:15:06and journalism and pontification about politics.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11They wanted something simpler, clear to understand, popular,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14even, perhaps even crude.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21At the end of the first week, The Sun published a manifesto
0:15:21 > 0:15:25aimed straight at the Mirror and its traditional readers.
0:15:26 > 0:15:32"The Sun has no party politics. The Sun is a radical newspaper.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34"We are not going to bow to the Establishment
0:15:34 > 0:15:38"in any of its privileged enclaves. Ever."
0:15:39 > 0:15:42Murdoch saw the Mirror as elitist,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45that it had gone middle class, that it was telling people
0:15:45 > 0:15:49what it, editors, thought they should have. It was educative.
0:15:49 > 0:15:54"No." said Murdoch. "Give them what they want - the public will decide.
0:15:54 > 0:15:58"The best example of democracy is to be found in the market."
0:15:58 > 0:16:02The Sun reflected the ambitions of ordinary people,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05and we were cheerful, and if this was a pub,
0:16:05 > 0:16:07this was a pub, right,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10we'd be in the corner laughing, probably with blokes,
0:16:10 > 0:16:13probably with blokes about football or sex,
0:16:13 > 0:16:14and over at the other end of the bar
0:16:14 > 0:16:16there'd be some old bloody codger there,
0:16:16 > 0:16:21rolling up their woodbines, you know, "disgraceful world" and all that,
0:16:21 > 0:16:23and that would be a Daily Mirror reader.
0:16:23 > 0:16:28So it was quite simple - one was youthful, vibrant, not over-educated
0:16:28 > 0:16:32but not stupid, and this one here was dying, and that's what happened.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40And if there's a single feature of The Sun that most clearly embodies
0:16:40 > 0:16:45its populist, upfront character, it must be Page Three, introduced
0:16:45 > 0:16:50in its full, topless glory, on the paper's first birthday in 1970.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55But it was only the most prominent example of how Murdoch's Sun
0:16:55 > 0:16:57gave its readers what THEY wanted.
0:16:58 > 0:17:04What Murdoch understood was how to push the boundaries
0:17:04 > 0:17:08that little bit further, understanding what people wanted,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11but at the same time not insulting them,
0:17:11 > 0:17:15and in no way going further than they really wished to themselves.
0:17:16 > 0:17:21Murdoch had taken over a failing paper, selling less than 700,000 copies.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Within a hundred days, he'd doubled it.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Every day the circulation would go up!
0:17:29 > 0:17:35I mean, literally, lead on "Nun runs off with rhino," and boom, up it goes,
0:17:35 > 0:17:37and then boom up it goes the following day. It was incredible!
0:17:37 > 0:17:40I didn't know anything about Rupert Murdoch to be honest with you,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43but there was a sense that there was a higher being somewhere
0:17:43 > 0:17:45who could create success.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51Readers might have warmed to Rupert Murdoch's newspapers
0:17:51 > 0:17:54but London society viewed him with considerable suspicion,
0:17:54 > 0:17:57not least because he seemed to relish
0:17:57 > 0:18:01exposing the salacious details of their private lives.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07Rupert and his wife, Anna, were effectively ostracised.
0:18:07 > 0:18:10But it's telling that when he was invited to a social event,
0:18:10 > 0:18:14he went to some lengths to try to fit in.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16One such occasion was a shooting party,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20where Murdoch met journalist and writer Chapman Pincher.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25Well, we were shooting at Ramsbury Manor, where I was a regular gun,
0:18:25 > 0:18:31and I arrived one day to see one of the guests was none other than Rupert Murdoch.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35I noticed right away that he was wearing
0:18:35 > 0:18:39an absolutely brand-new dark brown shooting knickerbocker suit.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44I also was pretty confident, when I looked, that his gun was brand-new.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56He didn't hit a thing. I felt rather sorry for him.
0:18:56 > 0:18:57Not one?
0:18:57 > 0:19:01Not one, no. Not a thing. Didn't disturb a feather, as we used to say.
0:19:03 > 0:19:08But by the end of the day, he was knocking a few down...
0:19:11 > 0:19:16..sufficiently to impress me into thinking he's the sort of chap
0:19:16 > 0:19:18who could do whatever he wanted to do.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Do you remember what you talked about during the shoot?
0:19:24 > 0:19:28Well, one of the things he said to me, which of course I can never forget,
0:19:28 > 0:19:32was he complained about the snobbishness of the people
0:19:32 > 0:19:36in this country, especially towards his Australian wife.
0:19:36 > 0:19:41And he even went so far as to say he was thinking of moving to America because of it.
0:19:45 > 0:19:47But it wasn't only English snobbery
0:19:47 > 0:19:50that had left Anna feeling deeply unsettled.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56In December 1969, the wife of Alick McKay,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59one of Rupert's executives in London, was abducted.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03It was a case of mistaken identity.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05The kidnappers thought they had Anna Murdoch.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10When they realised their mistake, they murdered Mrs McKay.
0:20:10 > 0:20:12Her killers were caught and convicted,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15but Muriel McKay's body was never found.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20- You were the intended target for the kidnappers?- Yes.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23That must have been a nightmare.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27It wasn't so bad for us as it was for Alick McKay,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29but certainly one has to think about it,
0:20:29 > 0:20:33and it coloured my time there in Britain after that happened.
0:20:36 > 0:20:41And so, in 1974, Rupert, Anna and the family - now three children - moved to New York.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47This was Rupert Murdoch's land of greatest opportunity.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50A vast English-speaking media market
0:20:50 > 0:20:55in a society where status is measured by wealth, not birthright.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01The outsider had finally found an elite he wanted to belong to,
0:21:01 > 0:21:04and a place where he could really do business.
0:21:06 > 0:21:11By 1976, Rupert Murdoch had found himself a struggling tabloid newspaper,
0:21:11 > 0:21:17the New York Post, which he set about transforming in typical Murdoch fashion.
0:21:17 > 0:21:18All very familiar.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22Less familiar though, unlike its counterparts in Australia and Britain,
0:21:22 > 0:21:27this one never really worked, culturally or commercially.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30But it was the beginning of something which did, big time.
0:21:35 > 0:21:38From his new headquarters in New York, Murdoch would spend
0:21:38 > 0:21:42the next 30 years building a global multimedia empire -
0:21:42 > 0:21:45the 60-billion News Corporation.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51In the 1970s, however, all that lay in the future.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56Meanwhile, back in the old country, politics was Murdoch's new frontier.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03The Sun had become Britain's best-selling daily,
0:22:03 > 0:22:07and it had stayed true to its anti-establishment agenda.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11It had campaigned for the abolition of the honours system,
0:22:11 > 0:22:13and it had no fixed political allegiances.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18And that was going to thrust The Sun into the frontline
0:22:18 > 0:22:21of the election campaign of 1979,
0:22:21 > 0:22:25being fought in a climate of economic misery
0:22:25 > 0:22:26and industrial unrest.
0:22:30 > 0:22:34Cometh the hour, cometh the woman. Margaret Thatcher represented
0:22:34 > 0:22:39the radical approach to Britain's woes - all music to Rupert Murdoch's
0:22:39 > 0:22:43ears, especially as his newspapers' readers were her principal target
0:22:43 > 0:22:46voters - skilled manual workers,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50otherwise known in the jargon as C1s and C2s.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54A key figure on the Thatcher campaign team
0:22:54 > 0:22:56was Tim, now Lord, Bell.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02Was The Sun more important to you than any other newspaper?
0:23:02 > 0:23:05Yes, because it had a very big C1, C2 readership.
0:23:05 > 0:23:09Um, people call it now "the white van man", but I mean that's exactly
0:23:09 > 0:23:14the kind of people that read it, and importantly, from our point
0:23:14 > 0:23:17of view, because it had been a trade union paper,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20it still had a huge amount of trade unionists who read it
0:23:20 > 0:23:23and, therefore, we were talking actually to the people
0:23:23 > 0:23:25who were causing all the trouble at the time.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28'Trevor Kavanagh joined The Sun in 1978
0:23:28 > 0:23:32'and went on to be the paper's political editor.'
0:23:32 > 0:23:34I think our readers were seen as their natural voters,
0:23:34 > 0:23:36the aspirational working class.
0:23:36 > 0:23:38So, yes, it was a natural relationship which was
0:23:38 > 0:23:41also compounded by the fact that Margaret Thatcher shared, I think,
0:23:41 > 0:23:46Mr Murdoch's view, which was that we should be going for low taxes,
0:23:46 > 0:23:49small government, strong defence, all the things that the
0:23:49 > 0:23:53Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher espoused as well.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57Rupert Murdoch is fond of saying that
0:23:57 > 0:24:01if politicians want to know what he thinks, they should read The Sun.
0:24:01 > 0:24:05In which case, take note of what the paper's editor, Larry Lamb,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08had to say in 1979.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10There was no point at which we consciously decided
0:24:10 > 0:24:13we would support the Tories, it's just that we found
0:24:13 > 0:24:18ourselves, on a series of issues over a long period, more inclined
0:24:18 > 0:24:21to be in sympathy with the Tory point of view.
0:24:22 > 0:24:27On election day, Larry Lamb published a 1,700-word front page
0:24:27 > 0:24:31editorial advising readers to vote Tory this time.
0:24:31 > 0:24:33Now, whether any of them will have read it,
0:24:33 > 0:24:36and certainly all of it, seems unlikely - and nor, of course,
0:24:36 > 0:24:38is there any reason to think that many of them
0:24:38 > 0:24:42would actually have voted Tory just because The Sun told them to.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45But the paper was onto something.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49Over months, the tone of its coverage caught the public mood
0:24:49 > 0:24:54and amplified it in a 140-point bold type.
0:24:54 > 0:24:57Headlines like, "Crisis? What Crisis?"
0:24:57 > 0:25:01captured perfectly the sense of ineptitude that dogged
0:25:01 > 0:25:04the Labour government as waves of strikes tipped
0:25:04 > 0:25:08the balance of popular opinion in favour of change.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11And the rest, as they say, is history.
0:25:14 > 0:25:17It was the first time the Murdoch Sun, the floating voter,
0:25:17 > 0:25:20had backed an election winner.
0:25:20 > 0:25:21From this point on, Murdoch
0:25:21 > 0:25:25and Thatcher are inextricably linked, and The Sun's role
0:25:25 > 0:25:27as a vital ingredient to electoral success
0:25:27 > 0:25:30passes into political orthodoxy.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33'Mrs Thatcher being applauded by Tory party workers...'
0:25:33 > 0:25:37And, as if to confirm it, in the next New Year's Honours List -
0:25:37 > 0:25:40Mrs Thatcher's first - was a knighthood for The Sun's editor,
0:25:40 > 0:25:44who Private Eye magazine instantly dubbed, "Sir Larrold Lamb."
0:25:46 > 0:25:48Rupert Murdoch, though, did not approve.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51He, at least, still believed in his own paper's conviction
0:25:51 > 0:25:54that honours were a farce.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57Rupert genuinely thought that Larry shouldn't have accepted
0:25:57 > 0:26:01a knighthood and I don't think he made any secret of it at all.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04I think it enraged him that, when he rang Larry's office, Larry's
0:26:04 > 0:26:08secretary had been instructed to say "Sir Larry Lamb's office."
0:26:08 > 0:26:09He didn't like it,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12he didn't think titles were what journalists should get.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17The knighthood was Sir Larry's swansong.
0:26:17 > 0:26:19The following year, Rupert Murdoch replaced him
0:26:19 > 0:26:24with Kelvin MacKenzie, a 34-year-old former sub-editor
0:26:24 > 0:26:27with only a single O Level to his name.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30And although Rupert Murdoch was now more usually in New York,
0:26:30 > 0:26:35he still kept a very close eye on his favourite newspaper.
0:26:35 > 0:26:38- 'He would call me up once a day. - Every day?'
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Yeah, every day, and at home, and everything.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43I remember he called me up once at home and I think
0:26:43 > 0:26:46I was in the middle of having a row with my wife, so
0:26:46 > 0:26:49I picked up the phone grumpily and it was him. So he says,
0:26:49 > 0:26:51"How's it all going?"
0:26:51 > 0:26:53I said, "Not very fucking well, actually,
0:26:53 > 0:26:55"I'm in the middle of a fucking row here,"
0:26:55 > 0:26:59and he said, "Hm, I'll call you later," and put the phone down!
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Under Kelvin MacKenzie, The Sun reached new heights
0:27:02 > 0:27:05of sensationalism, with more ferocious headlines,
0:27:05 > 0:27:09lashings of sex and, of course, bigger boobs.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Did he ever disapprove of anything you did?
0:27:12 > 0:27:15Yes, he did. He thought we went too far down market.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20He used to say things like,
0:27:20 > 0:27:25"Do you ever think of anything above the waist, you know?
0:27:25 > 0:27:29"I'm sick and tired of it." And, you know, all the sex and everything.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34Meanwhile, having backed her in 1979, The Sun not only stuck
0:27:34 > 0:27:38with its heroine, it became her most strident supporter,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40so much so that the suspicion that Murdoch
0:27:40 > 0:27:44and Thatcher had forged an actual political alliance really
0:27:44 > 0:27:49took hold. And that seemed to be confirmed by what Murdoch did next.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56In October 1980, The Times and its sister paper
0:27:56 > 0:27:59The Sunday Times were put on the market.
0:27:59 > 0:28:03It became the most controversial newspaper sale in modern
0:28:03 > 0:28:07British history, and is widely regarded as a stitch-up - damning
0:28:07 > 0:28:11evidence of Murdoch's sinister influence in the corridors of power.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17It's a story which has been the subject of concerted secrecy -
0:28:17 > 0:28:21not only concerted secrecy, but lies.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25And in 2012, these suspicions were reignited
0:28:25 > 0:28:29by the revelation that Rupert Murdoch had met Mrs Thatcher
0:28:29 > 0:28:31in secret, in 1981,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35while negotiations over the sale were still in progress.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38Harry Evans was then editor of The Sunday Times.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41Why was one bidder given private access?
0:28:41 > 0:28:46Why, secondly, was the note of that private access
0:28:46 > 0:28:48withheld from the public? You're dealing with people who
0:28:48 > 0:28:53prefer things not to be in... suffer the disinfectant of sunlight.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59But any suggestion of a secret deal is disputed by many of those
0:28:59 > 0:29:00directly involved.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05In 1980, Times newspapers had only just got over a year-long strike
0:29:05 > 0:29:10that cost the owners, the Thomson family, £40 million.
0:29:10 > 0:29:13They were determined to sell, and if no buyer could be found,
0:29:13 > 0:29:17were ready to shut both papers, with the loss of 4,000 jobs.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22'Sir Gordon Brunton was then managing director of Thomson,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25'and he had the job of finding a buyer.'
0:29:25 > 0:29:30To me, the absolute prime objective was the survival of The Times.
0:29:30 > 0:29:33The Sunday Times,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36with reasonable production, could have been highly profitable,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40but The Times was losing a great deal of money.
0:29:40 > 0:29:44I was absolutely convinced that the way to ensure the survival
0:29:44 > 0:29:49of The Times was to sell Times newspapers together,
0:29:49 > 0:29:52Sunday Times and The Times.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Of all the potential bidders, only Rupert Murdoch was fully
0:29:56 > 0:29:59committed to keeping both papers going.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03But what really alarmed the liberal media establishment was
0:30:03 > 0:30:06the possibility that the crown jewels of British journalism
0:30:06 > 0:30:09would fall into the hands of the "Dirty Digger" -
0:30:09 > 0:30:12Fleet Street's most ardent Thatcherite.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14What about the political side of this?
0:30:14 > 0:30:16When you're choosing an editor, for instance,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19would you want his political views to be your political views,
0:30:19 > 0:30:20broadly of the right?
0:30:20 > 0:30:23I don't know that my views are all so right wing as they're said to be.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27- Are they not?- No.- Are you not a supporter of Mrs Thatcher?
0:30:27 > 0:30:31Yes, I think Mrs Thatcher is more right than wrong, but I'm not a Tory.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Harry Evans had put together a bid, but only for The Sunday Times.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39He was frustrated that it was so swiftly dismissed.
0:30:39 > 0:30:44Gordon Brunton was very opposed to our buying The Sunday Times.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46His argument to me about that
0:30:46 > 0:30:50was that that was because he was determined to save The Times.
0:30:50 > 0:30:51As far as he could see,
0:30:51 > 0:30:54if he didn't keep them together, there was no chance.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56Well, that's a fair point, it's a fair point.
0:30:56 > 0:30:57Well, that was his argument.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00Evans has since been amongst the harshest critics
0:31:00 > 0:31:02of the Murdoch takeover.
0:31:02 > 0:31:05But, according to evidence we have seen, that wasn't always the case.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10I've got a letter here from Harry Evans, shall I read it to you?
0:31:10 > 0:31:11Please.
0:31:11 > 0:31:16"Dear Gordon, we at The Sunday Times prefer to be independent
0:31:16 > 0:31:20"and regard our consortium as a viable proposition for that
0:31:20 > 0:31:24"title, but it does not include The Times,
0:31:24 > 0:31:29"and I've therefore taken soundings amongst my staff
0:31:29 > 0:31:31"between the corporate bidders
0:31:31 > 0:31:34"represented by the most frequently mentioned names.
0:31:34 > 0:31:39"It is Murdoch that is preferred by a wide margin...
0:31:40 > 0:31:43"..and I myself would choose Murdoch."
0:31:43 > 0:31:48I mean, history has it that you were an implacable opponent
0:31:48 > 0:31:52of the Murdoch bid, but Gordon Brunton says,
0:31:52 > 0:31:53by the time we got to this point,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57Harry Evans was... That this was his preferred bid. He's right.
0:31:57 > 0:32:01- No, he's not.- That's what this says. - No, I know what he's saying.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04- That's what the letter said. - The letter doesn't say that,
0:32:04 > 0:32:06you have to put the letter in the context.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10It's like saying to a man who's facing an execution squad,
0:32:10 > 0:32:14"Would you prefer to be poisoned or shot?" All right?
0:32:14 > 0:32:15And secondly, none of us
0:32:15 > 0:32:18thought he would get through the monopolies commission.
0:32:23 > 0:32:27By law, all newspaper sales had to be referred to the MMC,
0:32:27 > 0:32:31that's the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, unless, that is,
0:32:31 > 0:32:36the papers involved were not, in commercial terms, going concerns.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40The cabinet minister who had to decide was John Biffen,
0:32:40 > 0:32:42and conventional wisdom has it in some quarters
0:32:42 > 0:32:46that Mrs Thatcher lent on John Biffen to persuade him to allow
0:32:46 > 0:32:52her friend Rupert Murdoch's bid to go through without an MMC referral.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55But because the Thomson company's accounts showed both papers were
0:32:55 > 0:32:59losing money, Biffen was perfectly entitled to let the deal go
0:32:59 > 0:33:01through without delay,
0:33:01 > 0:33:04which is what Thomson above all wanted.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08Did you say to the minister, "If you refer this,
0:33:08 > 0:33:11"the likelihood is we will close the newspapers"?
0:33:11 > 0:33:14Absolutely, absolutely.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17But what about that meeting between Murdoch
0:33:17 > 0:33:20and Thatcher kept secret for more than 30 years?
0:33:20 > 0:33:23Well, the minutes do record Murdoch stating his case, but there's
0:33:23 > 0:33:27nothing to suggest that any favours were asked for or promised.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32Of course, it's impossible to say for certain
0:33:32 > 0:33:35that there was no secret deal. There's no evidence for one,
0:33:35 > 0:33:39but for a secret deal to be secret, that's perhaps not surprising.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41We don't know whether, at some point,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43Rupert Murdoch didn't have a word in Mrs Thatcher's ear
0:33:43 > 0:33:46to seal the deal and avoid the monopolies commission.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50But the critical fact is there's no need for a political conspiracy
0:33:50 > 0:33:54to explain how and why John Biffen made the decision he did.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02And so it was, just a few weeks before his 50th birthday,
0:34:02 > 0:34:05Rupert Murdoch became the new owner of Times Newspapers.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09The undistinguished Oxford graduate with the Billingsgate touch
0:34:09 > 0:34:13had beaten the British establishment again.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17And the one part of this story that is beyond dispute is that
0:34:17 > 0:34:21Rupert Murdoch has kept The Times going, as he said he would,
0:34:21 > 0:34:24for over 30 years, in spite of the fact that,
0:34:24 > 0:34:29contrary to his original expectations, it still loses money.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35But back to that "secret meeting" in 1981,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38because there is a significant detail in these minutes
0:34:38 > 0:34:41which shows that in one area, at least, Mrs Thatcher
0:34:41 > 0:34:45and Rupert Murdoch were on exactly the same political wavelength.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48They record Rupert Murdoch telling Mrs Thatcher that he intends
0:34:48 > 0:34:52to tackle the historic problem of over-manning in Fleet Street
0:34:52 > 0:34:54by introducing new technology.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57She agrees it's a move long overdue.
0:34:58 > 0:35:00And it was a move that would see Murdoch risk everything
0:35:00 > 0:35:04he had built, because it would involve taking on another
0:35:04 > 0:35:07traditional vested interest - one which, up until now, he had
0:35:07 > 0:35:12been on good terms with - Fleet Street's all-powerful print unions.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16JOURNALIST: 'The scenes outside News International's print plant
0:35:16 > 0:35:19'at Wapping last night were reminiscent of the miners' strike.'
0:35:21 > 0:35:23Winter, 1986.
0:35:23 > 0:35:26These were the regular scenes at Wapping in east London -
0:35:26 > 0:35:29the location of Rupert Murdoch's new computerised print works.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35The plant had been built and equipped using the cover story
0:35:35 > 0:35:37that it would produce a new London paper,
0:35:37 > 0:35:42but as soon as it was ready, Murdoch moved all his titles in overnight.
0:35:42 > 0:35:47The print workers called a strike, Murdoch sacked them en masse.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53Many, like Terry Smith, had worked on The Sun from the beginning.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56This was our baby, we got it off the ground,
0:35:56 > 0:36:02we polished it, we gave him the actual means of building an empire.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04So there was a sense of betrayal?
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09And when he came down here in his limousine,
0:36:09 > 0:36:12and we were on picket duty over the side there,
0:36:12 > 0:36:17he'd hide beneath the seat, you could just about see the top of his head.
0:36:17 > 0:36:21He didn't have the guts to look at us straight in the face.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Wapping reignited the powerful suspicion that Murdoch had
0:36:26 > 0:36:29again conspired with Mrs Thatcher.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34This time, to smash another of Britain's powerful trades unions.
0:36:34 > 0:36:35I was aware that Rupert Murdoch
0:36:35 > 0:36:38and Margaret Thatcher were soul mates, but I wasn't aware that
0:36:38 > 0:36:41the relationship was that close. He did see her over Wapping.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44He said he'd squared it, that the Prime Minister was good.
0:36:44 > 0:36:45In the words that she put it,
0:36:45 > 0:36:48"I will make sure that there are enough police available
0:36:48 > 0:36:53"for you to go about your lawful business on the Queen's highways."
0:36:53 > 0:36:58Brenda, now Baroness, Dean was leader of the print union SOGAT.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01The conduct of the Met Police was appalling during that dispute.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03Do you think that had a political dimension to it?
0:37:03 > 0:37:05Yes, I do, I do.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10Mrs Thatcher had had this dispute through the coal board with
0:37:10 > 0:37:13the miners and it was always regarded in Britain,
0:37:13 > 0:37:18the two big strong areas for trade unionism were the miners
0:37:18 > 0:37:22and the print workers in Fleet Street, and if she could break
0:37:22 > 0:37:25both of those, then she'd break the trade union movement.
0:37:26 > 0:37:30Behind the barbed wire at Wapping, Murdoch was trying to do something
0:37:30 > 0:37:32that had never been attempted before -
0:37:32 > 0:37:36to produce four million newspapers a night, and distribute them,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39without the traditional print unions.
0:37:39 > 0:37:41It was a risk that no-one else in Fleet Street
0:37:41 > 0:37:43had ever been willing to take.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49If Wapping had gone wrong, Rupert Murdoch was finished in Britain -
0:37:49 > 0:37:52we used to joke that we'd all have to leave,
0:37:52 > 0:37:55that a helicopter would have to land on the roof at Wapping
0:37:55 > 0:37:56like the last days of Saigon.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Was Murdoch much in evidence during the dispute?
0:38:04 > 0:38:07Yes, you'd find him down on the boards as they were called,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11where we used to in those days still paste up the pages,
0:38:11 > 0:38:13and I remember one time
0:38:13 > 0:38:16I saw this apparently old guy crouched over,
0:38:16 > 0:38:21a grey jumper on, sticking down really, really slowly a story
0:38:21 > 0:38:23and I, I said to him, "For God's sake,
0:38:23 > 0:38:26"if we're going to get this paper out, can't you hurry?"
0:38:26 > 0:38:30I think I actually used an expletive, and the figure turned around,
0:38:30 > 0:38:34and it was Rupert and he went, "I'm doing my best, Roy."
0:38:41 > 0:38:44I remember within a week, two weeks of the dispute starting,
0:38:44 > 0:38:49there was a television programme that Murdoch was invited to take
0:38:49 > 0:38:54part in and so was I, and Bruce Matthews, his UK chief executive,
0:38:54 > 0:38:57said to me, "He's on a high, Brenda. He's loving producing the paper,
0:38:57 > 0:38:59"he's down there every night
0:38:59 > 0:39:01"watching the papers come off the press."
0:39:01 > 0:39:04The company were actively recruiting people whilst
0:39:04 > 0:39:07we were actually negotiating with Mr Murdoch's management.
0:39:07 > 0:39:08What do you think I am?
0:39:08 > 0:39:11Of course! You were threatening strikes.
0:39:11 > 0:39:12I mean, I'm entitled to make...
0:39:12 > 0:39:15But what kind of an employer, Mr Murdoch, actually recruits
0:39:15 > 0:39:18a parallel workforce and sacks the workforce that has worked for him...
0:39:18 > 0:39:22I didn't sack it, you walked out. You took them out, Miss Dean.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24He was showing this establishment,
0:39:24 > 0:39:26whether it was the trade union establishment or Fleet Street
0:39:26 > 0:39:30establishment, that he could do it and he was going to deliver.
0:39:37 > 0:39:40Murdoch had planned the move to Wapping like a military operation,
0:39:40 > 0:39:43and victory brought huge benefits.
0:39:43 > 0:39:49His UK profits that year went up by 85% to over £34 million.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54The print unions were broken, and where Murdoch went,
0:39:54 > 0:39:57other proprietors swiftly followed.
0:39:58 > 0:40:03I think Murdoch's moonlight flip to Wapping was the major
0:40:03 > 0:40:07transformative moment in the history of printed newspapers
0:40:07 > 0:40:12in Britain. You've got to imagine that, by the mid-'80s,
0:40:12 > 0:40:16all these papers with these vast staffs were still making profits,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20but my view is that if they'd hit the recession in 1990 without
0:40:20 > 0:40:24having shed their printing staffs, which they did totally because
0:40:24 > 0:40:28of what Rupert Murdoch did, then many of them would have gone to the wall.
0:40:31 > 0:40:34By now, Murdoch had taken on the old press owners,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37the liberal establishment and the trade unions,
0:40:37 > 0:40:40and he owned the best-selling daily and Sunday tabloids,
0:40:40 > 0:40:45as well the world's best known title, The London Times.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47So, where next?
0:40:47 > 0:40:51Broadcasting, and the biggest gamble of Rupert Murdoch's career.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54On 25th August, 1989,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Janet Street-Porter stepped out onto the stage at the Edinburgh
0:40:58 > 0:41:01Television Festival to introduce that year's keynote speaker.
0:41:01 > 0:41:03Do you remember doing this?
0:41:03 > 0:41:05Yeah, I remember being really nervous.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08You look nervous.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11'I'd just like to give you a few words about this year's theme,
0:41:11 > 0:41:12'which is new television.'
0:41:12 > 0:41:15And what was it that got you to invite Rupert Murdoch?
0:41:15 > 0:41:18I thought, this is a very prestigious lecture,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21I want to ruffle a few feathers.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23I want to stir the shit up.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27Because he was regarded as the devil incarnate.
0:41:27 > 0:41:30I'd be grateful if you'd welcome the fourteenth MacTaggart lecturer,
0:41:30 > 0:41:31Rupert Murdoch.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34Murdoch had come to the heart of the British television industry
0:41:34 > 0:41:38to tell them that change was coming - and he was going to deliver it.
0:41:40 > 0:41:44The new age of television offers untold opportunities for those
0:41:44 > 0:41:46equipped to grasp the future.
0:41:46 > 0:41:54He's at his best when he sees a lazy, self-satisfied, established
0:41:54 > 0:41:59interest like the print unions or like the BBC-ITV duopoly that
0:41:59 > 0:42:03rubbed each other's backs and told them they were both
0:42:03 > 0:42:07the best in the world. Kind of when he sees that, that's
0:42:07 > 0:42:11when he's at his most dangerous and when he's at his most visionary.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15Much of what passes for quality on British television really is
0:42:15 > 0:42:19no more than a reflection of the values of the narrow elite
0:42:19 > 0:42:24which controls it. The socially mobile are portrayed as uncaring,
0:42:24 > 0:42:28businessmen as crooks, money-making is to be despised.
0:42:29 > 0:42:33As a result, in the values it exudes, British television has been
0:42:33 > 0:42:36an integral part in the British disease.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39So, as it unfolded, what are you thinking?
0:42:39 > 0:42:43I'm looking down at all these male executives sitting in rows
0:42:43 > 0:42:45looking totally stone-faced.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48Those who would prefer the past will find the world leaving them behind.
0:42:48 > 0:42:51And how did they react?
0:42:51 > 0:42:53Er, like matron was dishing out enemas.
0:42:54 > 0:42:56Thank you.
0:42:56 > 0:42:57APPLAUSE
0:42:57 > 0:43:01Murdoch's weapon of choice was the new technology of satellite TV,
0:43:01 > 0:43:05which would be beyond the reach of UK regulators.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08Satellites don't recognise borders, so the best way to get into
0:43:08 > 0:43:11UK broadcasting was just beam some programming
0:43:11 > 0:43:15into the UK and provide increased consumer choice. That's how you get
0:43:15 > 0:43:20somewhere - you don't get anywhere by playing by the old boy rules.
0:43:21 > 0:43:25Sky had begun as a single channel on a communications satellite showing
0:43:25 > 0:43:28American repeats, but in 1988,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32Murdoch began planning a new multi-channel service,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35and appointed Andrew Neil to get it off the ground.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38The idea was we do a news channel, sports channel,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41a movie channel and the entertainment channel.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45I'd always believed in multi-channel TV, and here was a chance to do it,
0:43:45 > 0:43:50but when I got there and looked - my goodness, it was a complete mess.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56By the end of 1988, Sky had already cost Rupert Murdoch £120 million
0:43:56 > 0:44:01and the new satellite he needed hadn't even been launched.
0:44:01 > 0:44:04On the night the rocket went up,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07he kept on calling me to find out if the rocket had gone up.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10I told him that there was bad cloud, it was delayed. He called, and
0:44:10 > 0:44:13I said, "Look, Rupert, I've a hotline to French Guiana.
0:44:13 > 0:44:16"The moment I know, you'll know - could you just leave me alone?"
0:44:16 > 0:44:19And he said, "I will. I'm sorry for calling you."
0:44:19 > 0:44:22He said, "You know, I'm betting the company on this, Andrew.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24"If this satellite doesn't go up, we're finished."
0:44:34 > 0:44:39ALL: Five, four, three, two, one, go!
0:44:39 > 0:44:42Good evening, you're watching...
0:44:42 > 0:44:46Sky went on air on February 5th, 1989.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49..Ten Britons have agreed to sell their kidneys for cash...
0:44:49 > 0:44:51Meanwhile, back in enemy HQ...
0:44:51 > 0:44:55Well, joining us now direct from Sky Television's headquarters is
0:44:55 > 0:44:57John O'Loan who's Head of News at Sky.
0:44:57 > 0:44:58- Good morning.- Good morning.
0:44:58 > 0:45:01What's your estimate of how many people watched last night?
0:45:01 > 0:45:04In the newsroom, I think there were about 250.
0:45:04 > 0:45:05Now, Mr Murdoch, I see,
0:45:05 > 0:45:10is quoted as saying this will raise the standards of the BBC and ITN.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12He can't be serious?
0:45:12 > 0:45:16John O'Loan had worked for Rupert Murdoch in Australia before
0:45:16 > 0:45:19he was recruited to be Head of News at Sky.
0:45:19 > 0:45:23Did you see yourselves as outsiders in a kind of hostile environment?
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Not only did we see ourselves like that,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29we were given every reason to believe it. Yes.
0:45:29 > 0:45:30How do you mean?
0:45:32 > 0:45:35The kind of news conferences we couldn't attend,
0:45:35 > 0:45:37the kind of pools we were barred from,
0:45:37 > 0:45:41the reporting on Parliament that, in television terms,
0:45:41 > 0:45:45we were barred from... People would have preferred if we didn't succeed.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52The other challenge to Sky was more direct.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56British Satellite Broadcasting, BSB, was a regulator-approved
0:45:56 > 0:46:00service owned by a consortium of media companies,
0:46:00 > 0:46:02AKA the broadcasting establishment.
0:46:02 > 0:46:06We're going, let's call it, loosely, the quality route, and I think,
0:46:06 > 0:46:10you know, they're going more of a brash, News-Of-The-World/Sun route.
0:46:10 > 0:46:14The two broadcasters were now locked in a battle to attract paying
0:46:14 > 0:46:17customers and that meant spending millions,
0:46:17 > 0:46:20principally on Hollywood movies.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23It was the kind of fight made for Rupert Murdoch.
0:46:23 > 0:46:26One of the things you have to realise with Rupert Murdoch
0:46:26 > 0:46:29is he lives for the deal. He's the buccaneer deal maker,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32and he does it big time. I had flown over to Los Angeles, we sat
0:46:32 > 0:46:36in his office there, and Rupert called the head of Paramount.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40He said, "I'm sitting here with a cheque for 350 million.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44"Andrew will come round with it now if you will agree now to the output deal."
0:46:44 > 0:46:51That's how he did it. 350 million in 1989 prices -
0:46:51 > 0:46:54you're talking about closer to a billion today.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57So he thought big, and he loved the deal making.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05But by the autumn of 1990, Sky still had only 750,000 subscribers
0:47:05 > 0:47:10and despite a massive advertising campaign, BSB had just 110,000.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14Both sides were haemorrhaging cash.
0:47:14 > 0:47:19£2 million a week at Sky and £8 million a week at BSB.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22Could you really afford to have lost £500 million,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25cumulatively, say, and then just walk away?
0:47:25 > 0:47:29That would be the only thing to do. If you could still walk!
0:47:30 > 0:47:33This is what I've called the billion pound bet.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37The idea of putting all this money behind a pay-TV platform in the UK
0:47:37 > 0:47:43was a huge, risky enterprise. He was having to effectively subsidise
0:47:43 > 0:47:46the Sky operations through his newspaper operations, which in the
0:47:46 > 0:47:48UK at that point were profitable,
0:47:48 > 0:47:51and he was having to really look at his whole global empire,
0:47:51 > 0:47:54which was terribly leveraged, lots and lots of debt.
0:47:55 > 0:48:00And then, suddenly, in 1990, the billion pound bet - indeed,
0:48:00 > 0:48:04the whole of News Corporation - came very close to collapse.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Rupert Murdoch found himself exposed to the harsh
0:48:07 > 0:48:09chill of financial reality.
0:48:09 > 0:48:14By now, News Corporation had grown into a global network of hundreds
0:48:14 > 0:48:19of companies that owed money to 146 separate financial institutions.
0:48:19 > 0:48:23The News Corp debt burden had grown to close to 8 billion.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28Now, when the recession struck, in 1990, that debt burden was
0:48:28 > 0:48:31going to bring the company that close to collapse.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35Everything Rupert Murdoch had ever worked for was right on the edge -
0:48:35 > 0:48:38so much so that, as part of the rescue effort,
0:48:38 > 0:48:40even the family's own personal apartment,
0:48:40 > 0:48:42here in New York, was put up for mortgage.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Murdoch's hand was forced by his bankers.
0:48:48 > 0:48:53Stop the enormous losses at Sky or face foreclosure and bankruptcy.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56He had no choice but to agree to a merger
0:48:56 > 0:48:59with his establishment rival, BSB.
0:48:59 > 0:49:01Rupert had no money.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03And the BSB shareholders did have money,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06but they didn't want to spend any more of it just on BSB.
0:49:06 > 0:49:08And the best thing to do was to merge the two companies.
0:49:08 > 0:49:11And they agreed that Rupert had to run it.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14Although he retained management control,
0:49:14 > 0:49:17the merger broke one of Murdoch's golden rules -
0:49:17 > 0:49:20he was no longer the sole owner of the company.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24Nevertheless, under his leadership, BSkyB, as it became,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27climbed into profit on the back of Premier League soccer
0:49:27 > 0:49:29as well as Hollywood movies.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33It now offers more than 500 channels and generates revenues and profits
0:49:33 > 0:49:37that dwarf the rest of UK commercial television put together.
0:49:40 > 0:49:44There is no other way to characterise the last 15 or 20 years
0:49:44 > 0:49:47in the UK, other than to say that Rupert Murdoch
0:49:47 > 0:49:50precisely knew what he was doing when he created Sky television.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Rupert Murdoch said there was an appetite for pay TV, there was
0:49:53 > 0:49:57an appetite for different kinds of programmes to what existed
0:49:57 > 0:49:58already in the UK,
0:49:58 > 0:50:02and there are ten million reasons to believe today that he was right
0:50:02 > 0:50:05because there are ten million homes paying Sky for their television.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09And it's in the course of the last 20 years,
0:50:09 > 0:50:12as Rupert Murdoch became one of the most powerful media figures
0:50:12 > 0:50:17in the world, that, back in Britain, the seeds of his eventual undoing
0:50:17 > 0:50:22would be sown. And that story starts back in the realm of politics.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27The Sun's savage ridiculing of Labour leader Neil Kinnock
0:50:27 > 0:50:32during the 1992 general election and its claim to have won it
0:50:32 > 0:50:35for John Major made an indelible impression
0:50:35 > 0:50:37on an ambitious young politician.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44For as long as Tony Blair had been an MP,
0:50:44 > 0:50:46his party had regarded Rupert Murdoch
0:50:46 > 0:50:49and his organisation with utter contempt.
0:50:50 > 0:50:53But by the mid-1990s, Tony Blair was rebuilding Labour
0:50:53 > 0:50:56and set out to build bridges with Rupert Murdoch.
0:50:56 > 0:51:02Why? Because no Murdoch meant no Sun, and no Sun meant no
0:51:02 > 0:51:05New Labour victory - or so Blair and his associates thought.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07Which is why he ended up here.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16'Just a few months after becoming Labour leader in 1994,
0:51:16 > 0:51:18'Tony Blair sat down in this restaurant
0:51:18 > 0:51:22'in London's Belgravia for a private dinner with Rupert Murdoch.'
0:51:24 > 0:51:26It was the first time the two men had met,
0:51:26 > 0:51:29but they quickly found common cause, both seeing
0:51:29 > 0:51:34themselves as radicals impatient with the ways of Old Britain.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37The country was ripe for major political change again
0:51:37 > 0:51:40and Murdoch had found his man.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43It was a relationship which would have ramifications
0:51:43 > 0:51:46for years to come, starting with this
0:51:46 > 0:51:50headline in The Sun in the run up to the 1997 election.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55There is no question in my mind that the relationship
0:51:55 > 0:51:59between Mr Murdoch and Mr Blair and then
0:51:59 > 0:52:05between Mr Murdoch and Mr Brown was far closer, far more intensive,
0:52:05 > 0:52:09than it ever was between Rupert Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher.
0:52:09 > 0:52:13The relationship was much deeper and involved many more people
0:52:13 > 0:52:16than Rupert Murdoch, he was simply the top of it.
0:52:16 > 0:52:22There were at any one time 20 to 25 people on each side, government
0:52:22 > 0:52:27and News International, deeply involved in an intermeshed,
0:52:27 > 0:52:29close, deep relationship.
0:52:33 > 0:52:37The blurring of boundaries that started with New Labour continued
0:52:37 > 0:52:40with David Cameron, as he became, if anything, even closer to
0:52:40 > 0:52:44Murdoch's key lieutenant, and the central figure in all these
0:52:44 > 0:52:48relationships, Rebekah Brooks - the apple of Rupert Murdoch's eye.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53She had been editor of the News of the World, then The Sun,
0:52:53 > 0:52:57and, finally, chief executive of News International.
0:52:57 > 0:52:59Do you think the company did become too engaged?
0:52:59 > 0:53:03Yes, I do think it became too engaged with politicians personally.
0:53:03 > 0:53:04I think that...
0:53:04 > 0:53:07As I say, I think that politicians should be
0:53:07 > 0:53:10dealt with at arm's length, otherwise you get inveigled
0:53:10 > 0:53:15into the position where... Because they're extremely skilful at this,
0:53:15 > 0:53:18flattery is a powerful and potent weapon -
0:53:18 > 0:53:21that you are playing their tune
0:53:21 > 0:53:24and sometimes singing their tune too.
0:53:24 > 0:53:25So, yes, it's always a risk,
0:53:25 > 0:53:29and I think it's something that should be avoided.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33I'd be surprised that Rupert Murdoch didn't know that
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Rebekah Brooks was close to Blair and Brown and Cameron,
0:53:36 > 0:53:39that was pretty obvious, but he may have been
0:53:39 > 0:53:44shocked to discover just what that involved - so much texting,
0:53:44 > 0:53:49so many weekends spent together, all the parties that were attended,
0:53:49 > 0:53:53and I wonder whether on reflection he thought that had been very wise.
0:53:53 > 0:53:55Whether Rupert Murdoch approved or not,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59he and his organisation were now effectively part of an establishment
0:53:59 > 0:54:02that was every bit as extensive and corruptible
0:54:02 > 0:54:04as the traditional old boy network
0:54:04 > 0:54:07of which he had most definitely disapproved.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11But for something like 15 years,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15that was the way public life in Britain - involving the police,
0:54:15 > 0:54:18politicians and News International - simply was.
0:54:20 > 0:54:22And then a monumental scandal broke.
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Despicable. That's how Milly Dowler's parents have reacted
0:54:27 > 0:54:28after police told them...
0:54:28 > 0:54:32Journalists at the News of the World had hacked the mobile phone
0:54:32 > 0:54:35message box of murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37The News of the World have no humanity...
0:54:37 > 0:54:41As the scandal unfolded, thousands of cases emerged...
0:54:41 > 0:54:43More revelations in the News of the World...
0:54:43 > 0:54:46..celebrities, victims of crime and public officials.
0:54:46 > 0:54:47Disgusting revelations...
0:54:47 > 0:54:51Tonight, Mr Coulson emerged from Lewisham police station.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54It was systematic and widespread...
0:54:54 > 0:54:56These are clearly very serious allegations.
0:54:56 > 0:55:01..as was the network of corrupt officials on The Sun's payroll.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04And if these crimes weren't bad enough, for Rupert Murdoch,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07the decade-long corporate cover-up was worse.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10A once proud and defiant newspaper proprietor
0:55:10 > 0:55:13was reduced to abject apology.
0:55:16 > 0:55:19I would just like to say one sentence.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21This is the most humble day of my life.
0:55:23 > 0:55:24It wasn't the humblest day of his life -
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Rupert Murdoch doesn't do humble.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28It was probably the worst days of his life,
0:55:28 > 0:55:32because what he had created had come back to destroy him.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36He had created this new kind of aggressive tabloid journalism -
0:55:36 > 0:55:39it was that kind of aggressive tabloid journalism
0:55:39 > 0:55:43that gave him the money to acquire The Times, The Sunday Times,
0:55:43 > 0:55:47and then, post Wapping, to go and buy the TV stations
0:55:47 > 0:55:50in America that became the Fox Network and the studio
0:55:50 > 0:55:52that he took over as 20th Century Fox.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54There's a Shakespearean tragedy
0:55:54 > 0:56:01to it. What created him ending up destroying him in this country.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04It became a perfect storm, forcing Murdoch to close
0:56:04 > 0:56:07the News of the World, the paper that had brought him to Britain
0:56:07 > 0:56:12in the first place. Then he was compelled to abandon his strategic
0:56:12 > 0:56:16bid to take back full control of the jewel in his British crown, BSkyB.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22'But the repercussions spread well beyond these shores
0:56:22 > 0:56:23'to the rest of News Corporation,
0:56:23 > 0:56:27'because of the implication that Murdoch himself
0:56:27 > 0:56:29'had mishandled events.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33'The fact is that Rupert Murdoch is no longer in full control
0:56:33 > 0:56:37'of his company, and shareholder pressure has led to the corporation
0:56:37 > 0:56:39'being split in two.'
0:56:39 > 0:56:42But it has also led to something else which can be traced
0:56:42 > 0:56:46right back to the legacy of Rupert Murdoch's own father, Sir Keith.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53At its heart, News Corporation has always been a Murdoch family
0:56:53 > 0:56:56business and, in common with family businesses the world over,
0:56:56 > 0:57:02it's the founder's fondest wish to be succeeded by one of his children.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05The question used to be, which one?
0:57:05 > 0:57:08The question now is, can it be any of them?
0:57:09 > 0:57:11Over the course of 20 years, Rupert Murdoch had,
0:57:11 > 0:57:15at various times, appointed his children, Elisabeth, Lachlan
0:57:15 > 0:57:18and James, to senior posts in the company.
0:57:18 > 0:57:20More recently, youngest son James
0:57:20 > 0:57:23emerged as the boy most likely to succeed.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28He was made head of News International in the UK,
0:57:28 > 0:57:31but that put him in the firing line when the phone hacking scandal
0:57:31 > 0:57:34broke, which has all but wrecked his chances
0:57:34 > 0:57:36of ever succeeding his father.
0:57:40 > 0:57:44After decades of winning battles with Britain, Rupert Murdoch
0:57:44 > 0:57:46finally lost a big one -
0:57:46 > 0:57:50giving the people what they want eventually coming back to haunt him.
0:57:50 > 0:57:54The damage done to him by the phone hacking scandal is hard to
0:57:54 > 0:57:57overestimate. It appears to confirm, for example,
0:57:57 > 0:58:00everything his detractors always said about him.
0:58:00 > 0:58:03But much, much more important than that, for him,
0:58:03 > 0:58:07his life's ambition, to leave what he has built to his children,
0:58:07 > 0:58:11is now almost certainly a pipe dream.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15Meanwhile, for Britain, the Murdoch era is virtually over.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20What remains are newspapers that might otherwise have died out,
0:58:20 > 0:58:25abundance in TV unimagined 40 years ago and, for better or worse,
0:58:25 > 0:58:29a public culture dominated by the democracy of the market, not
0:58:29 > 0:58:31dictated by establishment elites.
0:58:33 > 0:58:38Rupert Murdoch offered us choice, and we bought it.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd