What’s left for Rupert?
Looks like FOX news might be headed for the media equivalent of a barrier reef in April. Every day there’s more damning information released via court filings. The anchors knew they were lying about election fraud, Murdoch knew they were lying. They had every opportunity to tell their viewers the truth and chose not to do it. Worse, Murdoch has admitted every bit of it.
People seem astonished that old Rupert would just shrug his shoulders and tell the truth now, when it’s bound to cost him at least a billion dollars and may crash FOX news forever.
Well, I’m not surprised. In fact, if I were him, I’d be doing the same thing. I wouldn’t be doing it to save the company or save my fortune either. Murdoch is worth six billion dollars. This lawsuit might cost him two billion. He’s 91 years old. There’s no world in which Rupert Murdoch has the time to spend the rest of his fortune.
His children are all well established and every one of them is rich. Rupert himself has been married and divorced four times. Every one of his wives was a remarkable woman in her own right and none of them bankrupted him. Rupert married, had a few kids, divorced and moved on to a newer, “better” model.
Murdoch went to Oxford. He’s lived on three continents and traveled to every place on earth that might strike his fancy. He has driven every fast car. He has eaten every gourmet dish, he’s owned every single thing he every wanted to own, no restrictions, no reservations. He has done everything that could ever strike his fancy. He’s indulged every whim and sampled every pleasure. Did I mention he’s 91 years old?
What’s left?
Murdoch has not left an indelible mark on history yet. Sure, FOX has done plenty of damage but none of it was exclusively his and his alone. He’s been hugely influential but he never swam the English Channel or flew to Africa in a hot air balloon or built the pyramids single handed. There is only one thing left for Murdoch to do that will change the world and inscribe his name on the face of history for a thousand years to come; crash the largest media corporation in the world single handed.
Before you dismiss this as a loss to Murdoch, remember, he’s 91 years old. He can’t lose. If he crashes FOX news, he changes the life path of every FOX news anchor. He changes American history, he might even be credited with a renaissance in news gathering and information distribution, crashing FOX might usher in an era of radical truth telling and when historians trace that era back to its root, they will find only one man looking back out at them, Rupert Murdoch.
Some of us know the satisfaction of burning bridges. I don’t mean divorcing someone or leaving a bad job, I mean looking over your whole life and deciding you’re on a path that is not worth pursuing. In that moment, some depressed people commit suicide, others seek counseling and find a way to reconcile themselves to the life they’ve got. But some people who aren’t depressed, and aren’t afraid of change, some people who love every aspect of life just wake up one day and walk out of their old life and into a new one.
I’ve done this three times and I don’t regret it. In fact, if I didn’t have a husband I love, I would be tempted to do it again. There is very little that is as exciting and as satisfying as starting over from scratch, with the past evaporating in your wake. Of course, people who do this usually keep in touch with friends and family, (I do) but not always. Sometimes they just vanish. I could never do that. I tried to do it once or twice but it didn’t stick, sometimes I regret that lack of mystery, but really? I care about the people who come into my life. I always want to know the twists and turns of their stories and help where I can. Still, I know what it means to move to a new place with nothing and begin a whole new life. Nothing beats it.
What I’m saying is; for people who are greedy for the full ride of life, what matters is the experience of life and part of the experience is the ability to radically restructure. What matters is the chance to live in a completely different way, in a completely different place, to sample as much as you can of life on earth while you’re here. Rupert Murdoch has done that a few times but now he’s too well known and too rich to be able to do it again. The next logical step is the biggest, it’s the last, the next adventure is to experience how it feels to crash the ship of your life on the rocks and sink the whole thing.
If I were Rupert Murdoch, I would seize my last remaining chance to exercise every last bit of my power on earth; I would douse FOX news in lighter fluid, light a match, toss it on the pile and walk away. (What a glow that bonfire would make!)
People will talk about it for centuries. Hundreds of thousands of people will have their world view changed completely. Thousands will be forced to reassess their careers and start over. Economies will be rocked. It’s the most powerful gesture a man who has everything could ever choose to make. He will ruin lives. He will vindicate the left (and RM started off his adult life as a fervent leftist, so that’s not the illogical leap it might seem to be) and most importantly, he will show the world the power he had on earth and how easy it was for him to take it, use it, and throw it away. It’s the ultimate flex.
I believe it’s what he’s going to do. The one remaining experience Rupert Murdoch has never had is that of spectacular failure. He’s certainly never done anything that looked completely illogical. Now is his chance. It’s probably his last chance. There are no consequences to suffer either, he’s 91 years old, if he lives another ten years, that will be a lot.
So if you own stock in FOX news, I would consider ditching it now. Don’t say no one warned you. There’s a whole species of human who looks at a lifetime as an interesting movie to be lived and savored for every part of it, and I am pretty sure Rupert Murdoch is one of them.
