Bonfire of the Murdochs
How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family –– and the World
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Bonfire of the Murdochs
Narrated by:
Cassandra Medcalf
Buy Now for $18.10
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Medcalf
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By:
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Gabriel Sherman
Summary
When Rupert Murdoch made a fateful decision about who should inherit his media colossus, he believed that pitting his children against each other would produce the most capable heir. Twenty-five years later, that gamble would tear apart one of the world’s most powerful families and trigger a multi-billion dollar reckoning in a succession battle featuring betrayals, lawsuits, and revenge plots.
In Bonfire of the Murdochs, bestselling author Gabriel Sherman tells the inside story of this epic family war, one whose seeds were planted a half-century ago in Australia when the complicated patriarch left his homeland to conquer the world and please the ghost of his judgmental father. That quest culminated in a media empire that controlled Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and tabloids on three continents, which wielded more political and cultural power than any single company in modern times.
But Rupert’s plan to rip up the secret trust controlling his empire and anoint his conservative firstborn son Lachlan as successor set him on a collision course with his three more liberal children What price would Rupert pay to secure his legacy? For the aging patriarch, this would be his final and most personal deal.
Based on interviews with more than 150 sources, Bonfire of the Murdochs is a richly textured narrative where each child plays their predestined role in a blood feud that explodes in a courtroom showdown. There, Murdoch’s children weaponize his own secrets against him. It is a tragedy Shakespeare would have appreciated, where getting everything you want costs everything you love.
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Critic Reviews
"This audiobook captures how Rupert Murdoch conquered the world of media at the cost of his own family."
"The Murdoch family media melodrama pits the aged Rupert and his chosen successor, son Lachlan, against his daughters and more liberal son James—a battle that ends in a court in Reno, Nevada. Cassandra Medcalf narrates in an appropriately serious style, adopting an earnest tone for this sad and solipsistic story. The author has covered the family for much of the past 20 years. He has gathered a trove of information, anecdotes, and records about how right-wing Lachlan triumphed and maintained this media behemoth, which encompasses networks, papers, and publishing houses on three continents."
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