Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch poses with a Sky television camera during the launch of his multichannel package in central London on September 1, 1993.His newspapers changed the political and cultural weather and swung elections. His satellite television channels upended the staid broadcasting scene.
But to his critics, Murdoch was an unaccountable, malevolent presence in British life. Nathan Sparkes of Hacked Off, a press reform group that aims to curb tabloid wrongdoing, said Murdoch “presided over a company where widespread illegality occurred and was subsequently covered up.” Ex-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn argued that Murdoch’s outlets had “poisoned global democracy and spread disinformation on a mass scale.
In a 1989 BBC interview, Murdoch put his success down to his antipodean roots, saying Australians came to the UK with “greater determination and greater energy,” unfettered by respect for “the rules of the ‘old world.’”Populist, pomposity-puncturing and patriotic, Murdoch’s tabloids undeniably had flair.
Tony Blair’s success in securing Murdoch’s backing helped Blair’s Labour Party win a landslide victory in 1997. Like other politicians, Blair denied giving Murdoch anything in return for his support—though plenty of skeptics doubted that.