The Man Who Owns the News

Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch

By: Michael Wolff

Narrated by: Don Leslie

If Rupert Murdoch isn’t making headlines, he’s busy buying the media outlets that generate the headlines. His News Corp. holdings—from the New York Post, Fox News, and most recently The Wall Street Journal, to name just a few—are vast, and his power is unrivaled. So what makes a man like this tick? Michael Wolff gives us the definitive answer in The Man Who Owns the News.

With unprecedented access to Rupert Murdoch himself, and his associates and family, Wolff chronicles the astonishing growth of Murdoch's $70 billion media kingdom. In intimate detail, he probes the Murdoch family dynasty, from the battles that have threatened to destroy it to the reconciliations that seem to only make it stronger. Drawing upon hundreds of hours of interviews, he offers accounts of the Dow Jones takeover as well as plays for Yahoo! and Newsday as they’ve never been revealed before.

Written in the irresistible stye that only an award-winning columnist for Vanity Fair can deliver, The Man Who Owns the News offers an exclusive glimpse into a man who wields extraordinary power and influence in the media on a worldwide scale—and whose family is being groomed to carry his legacy into the future.©2008 Michael Wolff; (P)2008 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

Praise for Michael Wolff’s BURN RATE

“Burn Rate has a terrific feel for the crazy deals, the characters, and the clashing bicoastal cultures of the Internet.” —Deborah Stead, New York Times

“Burn Rate is the real deal: a smart, thoughtful, funny, knowing, clear-eyed, candid and altogether exhilarating insider’s chronicle of the new media business—that is, the new media ‘business.’ If there’s a more honest and entertaining book on the digital revolution, I haven’t seen it.” —Kurt Andersen, columnist at The New Yorker

“Wolff has given us the best account of both the lure and the frustration of the Internet.” —Peter Martin, Financial Times

“Burn Rate is a hilarious and frightening account of the life of an Internet startup.”
—Amy Cortese, BusinessWeek

“Wolff, a nimble writer with a knack for spotting colorful details, moves the story along at movie-of-the-week pace.” —Katie Hafner, New York Times Book Review

Author Is Way Too Hallucinatory

I can count the books I was not able to finish on one hand. This is one of them. Every writer manages to enter their own attitudes, fantasies, guesses, and evaluations to some degree. But this writer goes so far as to describe what Murdoch is thinking, feeling, and guessing. It practically reads like a novel. The description of Hollywood culture and social intercourse was so blatantly incorrect I began to wonder if I should believe anything else I had read up to that point. A few hours later I just had to put it down. It became painful to listen to the slander, slurs, armchair psychiatric evaluations and hallucinatory guesses at Murdoch's feelings, motives, goals, purposes, desires, and attitudes. I can cautiously state the book was written from a position of deep resentment towards Murdoch, and a sadistic desire to degrade and humiliate him.

The Book Behind Succession

Jesse Armstrong wrote his screenplay, The Murdoch, shortly after this book was as published. Succession is a revised and improved version of The Murdochs.

Reading—err listening to—this book reminded me, in a scene by scene manner, of the joy of Succession. If you loved Succession, you will love this book.

The only point of sadness is there is no “Boar on the Floor” scene.

great read for enemies of murdoch

Terrific hatchet job. Entertaining and full of obscure and senseless observations of Murdochian thought and behavior. Great narration too.

Chaotic storyline - great take out

The book is revolving around one moment - Buying the WSJ and is connecting Murdoch’s whole life to that single event. Chaotic to follow but a great insight in the mind of one of the most powerful people on the planet.

MUST READ for business people

Personally speaking I have learned a lot from listening to this book on how I could be a better business professional. not only that but Rupert Murdoch is one of those significant figures in history that I think (Despite any personal opinions) we could all learn from

Worst Audio Book I've Ordered

This is the worse book I've heard. From the first sentence, it's is a nonstop negative portrayal of Mr. Murdoch, News Corp., WSJ, etc. It's relentless. Even if you dislike the man and company, it would be hard to listen to it without thinking that it seems more like a schoolyard rant than any serious discussion. Literally every sentence drips with negativity.

Worst Written Biography Ever

Repetitive anecdotes (crappy editing), lacking any source attribution in the text (makes events seem like heresay) and unceasing bullshittery over and above what Wolff has accomplished since. An unfinishable corpse of a book.

Grandiose and tedious

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Its is probably for people who just want to hear a long, tedious rambling about how evil Murdoch is.

Has The Man Who Owns the News turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, I'll still try to listen/read to some.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes, the narration was OK.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Man Who Owns the News?

Most of it is not really scenes, just thoughts and assertions by the author, without any seeming knowledge. I'd leave only the story itself, which would last less than one hour.

Cannot recommend

This is the driest most boring biography I’ve ever encountered. I expected it to be a fascinating story about a mighty man - but I had to keep jumping forward to avoid complete boredom. It’s as if the author accumulated as much info as he could and then the narrator read his scribbled notes. I am very sorry I wasted a credit.

Impossible to follow

Non-chronological, meandering, and tedious. Read Ted Turner's instead, or Gerstner's, or Weill's. No insight into Murdoch's business style, approach, views. No real behind the scenes intrigue. Just a hatchet job on the man; none of his perspective. A real disappointment. I wish I had listened to the abridged version, though I see even it is over 6 hours long. Two would have probably been about right.