The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty

Rupert Murdoch is an enigma.

Owner of The Sun,

The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal,

Fox News

and hundreds of other media outlets across the world,

and yet his story is rarely told.

We have nothing to say at all.

He was, and remains,

one of the most interesting people in the world.

I used to say at the time,

I learned more from listening to him for five minutes

than I would two or three years at any other media company.

To some, he's an extraordinary businessman.

Morning, Mr Murdoch!

To others, he's a darker force.

I call my cancer, the main one, the pancreas one, I call it Rupert.

The pollution of the British press is an important part

of the pollution of British political life.

For decades, Murdoch has been

a force in politics at the highest level.

This is a foreigner interfering in British politics.

We learnt a long time ago what to do!

The Murdochs always rally around one another,

but what divides the children

is that they each have their own interest

in what they're all going to get out of this huge inheritance.

I don't believe that David Cameron, or Tony Blair, really dared cough

without getting permission first from Rupert Murdoch.

Who do I admire?

Who would I look up to?

Certainly, Rupert Murdoch comes top of the tree,

simply because of his swashbuckling ways of doing things.

He's getting on with it.

This series tells the rise and fall,

and rise again, of the Murdoch dynasty.

What a story! What a story!

I mean, God, you know?

Let's go!

Thank you to my very good friend, Rupert Murdoch.

There's only one Rupert that we know.

My name is Les Hinton.

I worked for Rupert Murdoch for 52 years, from 1959.

Rupert has these management conferences every few years...

..but this was an early one...

..and we were having it in Hayman Island,

which was an island, at that time, which the company owned.

It's an idyllic tropical island. Beautiful place.

In 1995, there are a number of things

coming to a head in the Murdoch empire.

He's about to turn 65 - retirement age -

so the question of who will take over is coming into focus.

Hello again. How are you?

He wants to pass his empire on to one of his children.

Family has always been very important to Rupert Murdoch,

particularly from the point of view of forming a dynasty.

He had always wanted at least one of his children

to take over from him.

And the three candidates are all on Hayman Island...

his daughter, Elisabeth...

..and his sons, Lachlan and James.

He used to like to play them off against each other,

to see how they would survive.

I've met all the kids.

Elisabeth is the child that Rupert has told people

is the most like him.

Elisabeth comes across as clever, thoughtful,

and she's complimentary about her father.

I think he gave all of us, um... a sense of braveness.

Um, if you work hard

and you take risks,

you're actually OK.

Lachlan is someone who wants his father's approval.

He spent a lot of time modelling himself after his father.

He was known as the Prince.

Lachlan has a confident, easygoing air,

and if he's in a battle with his siblings,

he seems to be enjoying it.

We love getting in debates and we hate, you know...

And it gets to a point where, sometimes, you'll have...

Well, family members will have dinner with people

and they will, uh, if no-one's really talking about much,

or no-one... no-one is enjoying a debate,

we'll start taking positions against each other

we don't really believe in, but we just wanna,

you know, cause some, uh... some excitement.

And then there's James, the black sheep of the family.

He's dropped out of Harvard and invested in rap music.

He had piercings and tattoos. He was a bit of a rebel.

I was then 28,

and Lachlan and James were both in their sort of mid-20s.

I got out to Australia.

And we went out one night, we were having dinner,

and then we ended up playing snooker at a...

..in a snooker room until about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning,

and had lots to drink.

And I thought they were fantastic, the sons.

I mean, James told me

he'd been running this sort of rap record label,

and it got lively in negotiations with some of these rappers.

And, you know, a lot of them would be armed,

and that James, at one stage, had had a gun under his desk,

just in case.

And I think he said, "Just don't tell Dad that."

But before Rupert can think about succession,

he has a more pressing problem.

He's not getting on with the British Prime Minister, John Major,

and the Major government is now threatening

to regulate his business empire.

But a man who wants to become Britain's next prime minister

is also on Hayman Island...

..Tony Blair, whose visit is upsetting many in the Labour Party.

Why have you come halfway around the world

to talk to Rupert Murdoch and his men?

Well, it's important, obviously,

because this is a major conference

of one of the largest media outlets in the world.

I think it's important the Labour Party makes the case

as to why, in a world of very great change,

we are the best people to handle that change.

OK? Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Thanks.

Thank you. Nice to meet you. Bye-bye.

The Hayman Island conference was a very...

..quite a controversial moment for us.

You know, we had people in our own team who were saying,

"Look, don't do this, you shouldn't do this."

But I think Tony and I were immediately, "Let's do it."

Paul Keating, the Australian Prime Minister,

had some really good advice about how to deal with him.

He said, "Listen, two things you need to know about Murdoch.

"He's a really hard bastard," he said,

"and the only way to deal with him is to be a really hard bastard.

"'Cause if not, he'll have no respect for you at all."

And he said, "The second thing you have to understand about Rupert,"

he says, "in his orbit, in his world view,

"the priorities are as follows.

"Number one, Rupert Murdoch. Number two, Rupert Murdoch.

"Number three, Rupert Murdoch. Number four, Rupert Murdoch.

"That is it, you know.

"It's all about him and his business interests."

It's said that what drives Rupert Murdoch

can be found in his childhood in Australia.

His father had a small newspaper empire,

but he died prematurely

before he could hand it over to his son.

The trustees split up the business,

leaving Rupert feeling robbed of his birthright.

He inherited just one regional newspaper,

but, from there, he built.

A lot of his impetus came from the idea that he was going to

win back those newspapers

and show the world what could be achieved.

Rupert believes that it's necessary to have all forms of media

at your beck and call.

Buy a populist newspaper...

..and then branch out and get a serious paper...

..and then expand into TV.

And it gave him immense power.

Next, he wants to conquer the British market,

and he uses the same plan,

starting with the tabloids, the News of the World and The Sun,

read by up to 10 million people a day.

Next, he tries to buy The Times and The Sunday Times...

..but that's a problem.

There are rules in Britain about how much of any industry

one person can own.

But Prime Minister Thatcher and Murdoch are politically aligned.

She lets him buy the broadsheets,

and then take a large part of satellite network BSkyB...

..and his papers back Thatcher's government

all the way,

destroying every Labour Leader of the Opposition.

Now Blair's trip to Hayman Island

sends shock waves through the Labour Party.

"What the hell are you going there for, Tony?

"Surely it's not a suntan?!

"No, Murdoch is not to be trusted."

But then I knew what his answer was.

You have to make sure they're not anti-Labour.

And I couldn't dispute that.

I just don't like the price that comes with it.

And Murdoch said something like, you know, he says,

"We're probably going to end up like two porcupines making love -

"very slowly and very carefully."

I thought, "Bit fucking weird!"

Our policy is to be within Europe,

fighting for British interests,

not to follow the policy that he would

and surrender British interests.

Hear, hear!

Why can he not stand at that dispatch box,

as Prime Minister, and say that their views are wrong?

Because if he carries on...

You said, "I can imagine myself supporting Tony Blair."

Are you going to support him?

Well, we'll have to find out what the difference is

between Mr Blair and Mr Major before we make that decision.

Right now, from this distance, it's rather confusing.

Just as he hasn't made up his mind

as to who to support as Prime Minister,