How Murdoch Keeps It In The Family

Stop for a moment and ask yourself: how can one family control one of the most powerful media organisations in the world?

A family that owns less than a eighth of the company, by the way, but which still effectively controls its board and executive by virtue of its ownership of around 40 per cent of the so-called "Class B" shares. We’ll get to the Class B shares in a minute.

Media companies are notorious for being family businesses. The Packer and Murdoch families have controlled their respective media empires for three generations. Over at Fairfax, John B. Fairfax can trace an even older lineage. The controlling interests in these powerful shapers of public opinion can tell us many things about contemporary society: the role of the media in shaping power in our democracy, the enduring advantage of inherited wealth, and the sham that is "corporate social responsibility".

http://newmatilda.com/2011/07/19/how-murdoch-keeps-it-family


For someone like me, lacking a good understanding of high finance and the share market, Ben Eltham explains very well just what shysters like Murdoch can get away with, not only here but in the United States. He doesn't mention that so much of Murdoch's success is due to politicians eager to keep Murdoch on side - none of them have ever grasped that Murdoch is on nobody's side but his own.