William Hartley Hume Shawcross is a writer and commentator, and a former Chairman of the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
Here is yet another chronicle of the life and times of Rupert Murdoch (Thomas Kiernan's Citizen Murdoch , LJ 10/15/86; Michael Leapman's Arrogant Aussie , LJ 6/15/86; Jerome Tuccille's Rupert Murdoch , LJ 11/1/89). In part a biography of an opportunist seizing hold of a tabloid-hungry society, it also is a study of a complex financial restructuring and a comment on info-tainment and its impact on the mass media industry. It is exhaustively researched and is an occasionally forgiving story of media giant Rupert Murdoch and his empire (Fox Broadcasting, TV Guide , New York magazine, New York Post, London Times , etc.). Most compelling is the account of Murdoch's financial dealing with Ann Lane, a Citicorp vice-president who formulated the business plan to restructure and salvage Murdoch's News Corporation and devised the two guiding principles: ``We are where we are'' and ``Nobody get out.'' Recommended for large business and communications collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/92: there may be some demand due to the controversy that arose when novelist John LeCarre accused Tina Brown of misusing her position as editor of The New Yorker to dismiss Shawcross's book because it contained an unflattering portrait of her husband, Random House Publisher Harold Evans.--Ed.-- Jo Cates, Northwestern Univ. Lib., Evanston, Ill.
For this unauthorized biography of media baron Rupert Murdoch, a ``uniquely important'' information broker whose life has been ``an unending assault upon the world,'' Shawcross ( Sideshow ) had privileged access to Murdoch, to his colleagues and family. The result is a mostly nonjudgmental, flat profile of a driven, often ruthless, lonely man of ``invincible energy and ambition'' who put together a communications empire stretching from Australia to London to New York, Chicago and Hollywood. Shawcross perceives ``a certain dour puritanism'' in the king of sensationalist tabloid journalism. Murdoch's life was a series of takeovers, wins and losses that included the acquisitions of the New York Post, the London Times , Fox film and television, and HarperCollins publishers. Murdoch, an ardent supporter of Reaganism and Thatcherism, viewed himself as ``totally internationalist'' and saw his media empire as instrumental in promoting the Americanization of the world, but Shawcross fails to explore the implications of that prospect. Photos. Author tour. (Feb.)
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