梅鐸傳

Hanford

小弟強烈推荐，看完會令大家對西方傳媒運作和政治現實更有認識

介紹
http://www.sbs.com.au/documentary/program/1212/

小弟可代購影碟 (35澳元):
https://shop.abc.net.au/products/murdoch-dvd

Hanford

Murdoch is a landmark two-part documentary series which tells the inside story of one of the most powerful and controversial media moguls on the planet.

A story of love, scandal, money and reputation.

Friends, rivals, colleagues past and present – and the odd former Prime Minister – reveal how Rupert Murdoch built his global empire, starting with a single newspaper in 1950s Australia.

Murdoch tells of his ruthless expansion and deal-making: the billions he made – and lost, the reputations he built – and destroyed, in his never-ending quest to become the undisputed king of newspapers, Hollywood films and global television.

The series also casts a light on the private Murdoch; his relationships, marriages, king-making, strengths and very human flaws – and most recently his struggle to redeem himself and his company after the phone hacking scandal tore through the heart of his empire.

Part 1
The first episode of Murdoch charts the evolution of a mogul. Murdoch had a cosseted education at his elite Australian boarding school and then under the romantic spires of Oxford University in England. The unexpected death of his father deprived him of what he saw as his birthright – the Herald and Weekly Times Group – the newspaper empire his father had built up, but did not actually own. Murdoch was determined never to work for anyone else – and to build his own print empire. He launched himself into the wild world of Australian newspapers – first in Adelaide, then in Sydney. He gave as good as he got - and survived.

In 1964, he launched Australia’s first national newspaper The Australian, and politicians sat up and took notice. Restless, he tackled the UK – and the British establishment, where he was dubbed ‘The Dirty Digger’ after the salacious scandals in his tabloids. Ostracised from polite society, Murdoch took his family across the Atlantic, where he launched his tabloids on an unsuspecting American public. He spent millions building a newspaper empire and used it to promote his political favorites to election victories. Mogul status was truly assured when he gave up his Australian citizenship and bought the 20th Century Fox movie studio in Hollywood during the 80s boom years.

Murdoch  further charts the rise of Murdoch the 'Political Powerbroker'. He got his first taste of power in 1972, when he used his newspapers to help elect Gough Whitlam, the first Australian Labor Prime Minister for 23 years, only to turn violently against him three years later.

In the US, he threw his backing behind Ronald Reagan, but in the UK he found his ideological soul-mate in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who in the 1980s was quick to lend her support – and her police forces – when Britain’s print unions raged on the streets when his new technology threatened their livelihoods. After tackling the print unions in the UK, he returned to Australia to achieve a dream he had nurtured for more than 30 years – finally snatching the Herald and Weekly Times Group and bringing it back into the family fold.

There seemed no stopping the upstart ‘outsider’ and his all-powerful News Corporation. Until one project, more ambitious and costly than any before, sent him to the brink of financial ruin.

Part 2
Even his closest advisers doubted him, yet Rupert Murdoch was so convinced that his British satellite pay – TV channel ‘Sky’, would be a roaring success. He revealed to advisors that he bet his entire company on making it work. But it drove him into billions of debt and he very nearly lost his entire empire. Only after a year of begging the banks, did Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation come back from the brink of collapse.

Buoyed by the success of sports on Sky, he went to war with his big Australian rival – Kerry Packer – and tried to set up a rival Super-League. Years of trading insults and millions of dollars later, the two giants of Australian media were forced to call a truce. Undaunted, Murdoch, the 24/7 workaholic mogul, to the despair of his wife, spent the rest of the 90s spending more of his millions. He tried – and failed – to conquer China, misjudging and insulting the Communist leadership along the way. Western democracies appeared more welcoming. Political leaders in Australia and Britain fell over themselves to court him, desperate for his front page support come election day. Occupants of the White House paid close attention to his provocative right-wing Fox News, while he thrilled viewers with the edgy Simpsons cartoon phenomenon and wowed them with dizzying – and lucrative – sports coverage.

His third wife, nearly half his age, has given him a new lease of life – and two young daughters. But can even he survive the bombshell of the UK phone hacking scandal that has derailed his company – and his succession plans?

Hanford

梅鐸對於香港人來說，近點的記憶是他和他年輕殺子報老婆離婚的花邊新聞，遠點的可能是小超人把衛星電視高價賣給這條傻鬼佬，然後大超人把所有落在衛星電視的廣告全部抽起，兩父子合力過了此傻鬼佬一棟．

他在計劃進軍中國市場的時候，不顧政治現實，在一個酒會上公開演說時得罪了共產黨，令新聞集團蒙受了上億計的損失，他雖後悔不已，但他的演說成了他生命中最昂貴的五分鐘．從商者真的要管好自己的嘴巴．

他初進軍英國時，以白武士的姿態收購小報太陽報，在英國佬眼中，他本來只是一個澳洲鄉巴佬投資者，口頭承諾了不會干涉報紙運作的傻瓜，但他很快就出爾反爾，長駐英國來主導報紙的運作及編輯．他成功地用無上裝女郎加刮有錢人瘡疤令太陽報的銷路倍增，他的舉措亦證實了香港傳媒人常常高舉的編輯自主在民主國家亦只是隨口說說而已．

他為了擺脫英國印刷工會的掣肘，和戴卓爾夫人官商合作，戴卓爾夫人用公權力來指揮警察鎮壓工會示威者，重傷者無數．雖然有點過分，但卻無損戴卓爾夫人的聲望．看來官商合作只要公道和得到大部份人同意（即民意授權），民眾亦會理解．此片展現的西方政治現實對香港人相信會有點啟發．