Elisabeth Murdoch, who delivered the keynote MacTaggart lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival on Aug. 23, “explicitly contradicted her brother James,”
The Guardian
reported.
According to
The Guardian
report, when Elisabeth Murdoch spoke, “tensions within the world’s most powerful media family were dramatically laid bare.” James Murdoch delivered the MacTaggart lecture in 2009; their father, Rupert Murdoch, has also presented the MacTaggart speech.
Elisabeth Murdoch said the BBC was “a strategic catalyst to the [U.K.’s] creative industries.” This contradicted James Murdoch’s MacTaggart remarks in 2009, when he called for an end to BBC domination of the U.K. market,
a
Financial Times
report
noted.
The
FT
article pointed out that Shine, the TV production company chaired by Elisabeth Murdoch, has a close relationship with the BBC. Shine was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. last year for $673 million; shareholders filed suit over the deal, saying the purchase price was too high.
Elisabeth Murdoch also said that “profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster,” while her brother said in 2009 that profit is the “only reliable and perpetual guarantor of independence,” the
FT
article said.
She referred to the U.K. government inquiry into British media practices, saying, “when there has been such an unsettling dearth of integrity across so many of our institutions, it is very difficult to argue for the right outcome, which must be the fierce protection of a free press and light-touch media regulation.”
The
FT
report said “she devoted almost a quarter of the lecture to charting her career” and noted that “some people speculated that Ms Murdoch was establishing her credentials as a future leader of News Corp.”
But, citing friends of Elisabeth Murdoch, both the
FT
and
The Guardian
said she had no interest in taking a larger role in her father’s company. The report also said that plans for her to join the News Corp. board were now off the table.
The Wall Street Journal
— which is owned by News Corp. —
reported
that Elisabeth Murdoch “quoted from her father’s version of the MacTaggart Lecture, saying he had inspired her with his words about the role of broadcasting.” (Sources:
The Guardian,
Aug. 23, 2012;
Financial Times,
Aug. 23, 2012;
Wall Street Journal,
Aug. 24, 2012.)
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