September 21, 2010

Hacking Scandal: Murdoch to Blair—Help!

By Michael Wolff

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelWolffNYC

A British banker once described for me what happened when Rupert Murdoch decided to make then-31-year-old son James the CEO of BSkyB, the UK satellite television company managed by News Corp. but in which it holds only a minority stake. (News Corp. is now trying to buy all of BSkyB.) There was a huge and predictable cry from other shareholders that Murdoch was autocratically imposing his son on the company. It was a tense moment in which the younger Murdoch might have been turned out and News Corp.’s grip on BSkyB loosened. But then Rupert started working the phones—one of his...