A finely balanced assessment of the media mogul’s sprawling empire – written by his right-hand manLike him or loathe him, Rupert Murdoch remains one of the world’s most fascinating characters. He is the subject of more than a dozen biographies and is the central figure in at least a score of other books, most of which are highly critical and suffer from their authors having little or no personal knowledge of the man. The Murdoch Method should therefore be viewed as a book apart, because Irwin Stelzer spent the best part of 30 years in close contact with the media mogul.It is tempting to deride Murdoch’s current status by inserting “old” before both the words “media” and “mogul”. But at 87, he continues to exert influence through his chairmanship of two giant companies, News Corp, the newspaper and book publishing conglomerate, and 21st Century Fox, the sprawling film and TV entertainments group. While building them, Murdoch has generated continual controversy. Among the charges are business ruthlessness, political meddling, editorial interference, hostility to regulation and cultural vandalism. Nor should we overlook the UK scandal of phone-hacking at the News of the World, which led to the paper’s closure, and the US scandal of sexual impropriety at Fox News, which led to its chief executive being ousted and the subsequent firing of one of its main presenters. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Thane Rosenbaum skillfully mixes fantasy and tragedy in 'The Stranger Within Sarah Stein,' whose heroine weathers her parents' divorce with pluck and defiance.Young adult novelists are increasingly tackling darker subjects: kidnappings, drugs, rape. But few have delved into so many dark subjects... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'These Dreams of You,' Steve Erickson writes incisively and movingly about issues of family and race, but the novel goes off the rails with tangents.Zan Nordhoc's unhappy family is certainly unhappy in its own ways in Steve Erickson's new novel "These Dreams of You." For instance, in a... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'The Escape Artists' by Noam Scheiber and 'Confidence Men' by Ron Suskind, President Obama's economic recovery plan and his advisors are in the spotlight, but the books' analyses are off the mark in places.On Oct. 28 and 29, 1929, when the great crash devastated the stock market, Herbert... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid writes about insights gained rebuilding the war-ravaged home of his great grandfather in Lebanon in 'House of Stone.'A yearning for home, wherever that may be, is one of many themes that the late New York Times journalist Anthony Shadid so deftly... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Controversial political and social issues are examined with an intellectual passion.Thinking the Twentieth Century Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This is a brilliant collection of writings on politics, social and cultural engagement and literary life.Reading for My Life Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In reckoning with her friend's suicide, the author pulls readers into that empty space where loss and grief reside.The Guardians: An Elegy Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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#sarah manguso
'Tinderbox: How the West Sparked the AIDS Epidemic and the How the World Can Finally Overcome It' describes what spread the pandemic and what could rein it in.Tinderbox Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This collection of short stories includes the fine 'Frankenwittgenstein,' 'Considering the Bittersweet End of Susan Falls' and uneven others.Hot Pink Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The novel takes place across decades and tells overlapping stories as it tries to piece together a fallen world.Gods Without Men Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This is a comprehensive biography of the president and an assessment of his leadership qualities on and off the battlefield.Eisenhower in War and Peace Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In the 2011 Man Booker Prize finalist, the author has pitch-perfect voice and her jazz musician characters have rhythmic conversations.Not unlike its counterpart rock 'n' roll, memorable jazz novels occupy a pretty slim shelf at the local bookstore. Though the music has been gracefully spun into... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Web magazine will publish an expanded look at books on the first Saturday of each month, as stand-alone book review sections in newspapers have dwindled. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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More fallout from PhoneGate: News Corp. executive James Murdoch has "relinquished his position" as executive chairman head of News International, the conglomerate's British newspaper unit. News Corp., which also owns this Web site, says News International chief executive Tom Mockridge will stay... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-02-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rupert Murdoch’s son, James Murdoch, has stepped down from his position as executive chairman of News International, News Corporation’s UK publishing unit that has been rocked by a phone hacking scandal and police investigation. James Murdoch will focus on expanding News Corp.’s international... Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2012-02-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With care and craft, the novelist and essayist seeks to summarize Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 art film 'Stalker,' finding elements that will keep the non- cinéaste onboard.Zona Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A creepy professor eavesdrops on a woman's therapy sessions and becomes obsessed with her.By Blood Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The death of language is explored via plague-carrying children and their horror-struck parents in a wildly inventive tale by Ben Marcus.Spend too much time with 24-hour news networks and it's easy to feel that exposure to that much talk can make you sick. Taking the idea a few steps further,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Charlestown, Mass. bindery still makes books by hand, using a 19th-century production model. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-02-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In 'Enemies: A History of the FBI,' Tim Weiner ('Legacy of Ashes') offers a scathing indictment of the FBI, before J. Edgar Hoover and since.Each week, the FBI sends reporters an email of "top ten news stories" that it hopes will hit the headlines. The press releases usually highlight crooks... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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