Will Rupert Murdoch Star as King Lear?

What’s the Latest Development?

Rupert Murdoch and his son remain at the center of a journalistic cum political scandal in the U.K. after it was revealed that the British tabloid News of the World, owned by Murdoch’s News Corporation, allegedly tapped phones of murder victims and 9/11 families. The scandal blew up when Prime Minister David Cameron’s press adviser was arrested because he presided over the tabloid at the time the phone hacking occurred. “If I had to guess,” says Martin T. Sosnoff, “Rupert walks the plank along with his son.”

What’s the Big Idea?

While many loath Murdoch’s conservative political sympathies, it is difficult to argue with his success as a media mogul. “The enormity of Murdoch’s 30-odd-year achievement is best illustrated by contrasting it with the New York Times Company, the Sulzbergers, asleep at the switch much longer than Rip Van Winkle. News Corp’s revenue base is $33 billion, double the size of Viacom, bigger than Time Warner, only overshadowed by Disney and Comcast who have been around nearly forever.”