PRESENT TENSE:STORIES of Rupert Murdoch's supposed micromanagement are legendary. Last summer one spread around the New York media world, relating the odd tale of how a New York Postgossip columnist, Neel Shah, had been reprimanded by Murdoch for wearing shorts to work on a particularly hot day.
The oddest part? It was when Shah entered the cafeteria in News Corporation’s Manhattan headquarters that Murdoch apparently made his intervention, calling the canteen manager to alert Shah to his dress-code violation. It seemed Murdoch was watching his underlings on security cameras from his office.
Shah sharpened up his act pronto, but Murdoch was said to have been keeping an eye out for him and other staff: Shah was told his facial hair was too scruffy, and he heard that a marketing employee had been fired for revealing too much chest under his unbuttoned shirt.
As an example of Murdoch’s appetite for micromanagement it looked perfect, but unfortunately it was also a prank. The canteen manager and then other employees kept up the ruse for a few months before Shah realised he’d been punked.
Prank or not, though, it was only funny, and successful, because everybody has heard about Murdoch’s management style, which involves knowing every detail and making every decision, big and small.
It is probably just as well that Murdoch doesn’t actually monitor his army of staff for misbehaviour himself, because he would have had an exceedingly busy week. Last weekend it was revealed that the Sky Sports mainstays Andy Gray and Richard Keys were sexist boors, a leaked clip showing them dismissing both a lineswoman’s ability to judge offside correctly and a female executive’s claims that soccer was rife with sexism.
Their offence was much more egregious than wearing short pants to work, of course, and by Wednesday they were both gone, as further leaked clips revealed that their behaviour wasn’t an aberration. The flood of female colleagues anonymously testifying to the duo’s coarse attitude explained why so many off-air clips were being leaked: such behaviour tends not to inspire loyalty.
Nobody was exactly shocked at the revelations about Gray and Keys. (I’d hate to discover otherwise, but I very much doubt that Bill O’Herlihy and George Hamilton, say, engage in similar “banter”.) Making snap judgments despite all evidence to the contrary was Gray’s stock in trade for nearly 20 years, so he was unlikely to miss the chance to question a lineswoman’s offside call, even though she got it right. And Keys’s somewhat unctuous on-air personality seems in keeping with the self-regarding statements that got him into trouble.
Coming in isolation, this would be a tawdry little affair, inspiring some tabloid hysteria and some broadsheet handwringing, and Gray and Keys might even have kept their jobs. But it hasn’t come in isolation. News Corporation is fighting a number of fires at the moment, and Murdoch is striving to prevent the conflagration getting out of control.
On Wednesday afternoon news broke that Scotland Yard had reopened its investigation into the protracted News of the Worldphone-hacking case. The list of celebrities suing the paper seems to grow by the day, though many are wondering whether Andy Gray's decision to take legal action against the paper contributed to his sacking by Sky. The scandal has already seen one reporter imprisoned, a senior editor sacked and Andy Coulson, David Cameron's director of communications and News of the World editor at the time of the phone hacking, resign.
On Sky News on Wednesday, the anchorwoman Kay Burley, herself no stranger to controversial statements, was delivering details of Scotland Yard’s investigation with her most po-faced expression while beneath her a ticker revealed the other breaking headline: that Richard Keys was considering his future at the broadcasting company. That evening he resigned, citing “dark forces” that prevented him from publicly apologising sooner. That looks like a media empire in trouble.
Fuelling the conspiracy theories, who should fly into London this week, in an apparent bid to get a handle on the phone-hacking scandal, but Rupert Murdoch himself? (He was seen having lunch at News International’s Wapping canteen, no doubt keeping an eye out for inappropriate attire.) The potential cost to Murdoch is great, as the Tories are weighing up News Corporation’s attempt to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB it doesn’t already own. Such a move is opposed by pretty much every other media organisation in the UK, which is a factor to consider when assessing the motives behind the extensive coverage of misbehaviour at the company. The perception of a corporation that fails to meet high ethical standards, a perception exacerbated by the cumulative effect of phone-hacking scandals and Neanderthal sports broadcasters, could easily scupper the deal.
But it’s not just Murdoch’s UK media empire that is being judged. The role of Fox News in the US is also under increasing scrutiny in the wake of the Arizona shootings, which have led to increased calls for “civility” in political discourse. Giving a platform to a bully such as Bill O’Reilly is one thing, but giving a platform to a demagogue such as Glenn Beck as well shows a disregard for “civility”.
The pressure on Murdoch to raise standards is now coming from both sides of the Atlantic. Maybe the famous micromanager should consider monitoring every member of staff from his office after all.
Shane Hegarty is on leave
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