in the middle of media, right in the middle of business and when you uproot a tree you realize it also has this enormous root system, and it exposes all of these connections between politics, the police, the media and at the center of it is one family, literally issuing orders from one person. that can change the whole orientation and politics and trajectory of a country, and we experienced that through phone hacking. but in the end, they make a couple of changes in their corporate structure, they announce they re going to change their ways, and rupert emerges as still the most powerful media mogul in the world. by the end of the hacking scandal, james is a complete pariah. his effort to buy bskyb failed.
james murdoch is now at the top of the company, is almost certain to succeed his father, and he s doing tremendously. he goes from a junior member of the family to a successful executive at newscorp, to the ceo of sky, to now being in charge of news international, their global division. lachlan has at that point, gone off to australia, or he s doing his own thing. he s basically left the family business. liz at that time is off doing her open thing as well. so james is the one working for the family, doing the hard work, flying around the world. he has built the empire overseas. he has now settled in london with his family. and he s in the midst of a big move. newscorp is in the process of trying to acquire bskyb. that s a paid tv broadcaster serving the uk and ireland.
the entire political world turns against him. this should be murdoch s head. oh yeah. and murdoch really has no choice but to drop the bskyb bid. it s a sight many people thought they would never see, media tycoon rupert murdoch in retreat. to actually drop the bid for bskyb, to see the writing on the wall, was like nothing that had ever happened to the murdoch empire in the past. and for james it s an especially brutal blow. this was his moment. bskyb was his chance to really push himself over the top. morning. morning, james. how confident are you that wrongdoing hasn t spread to the other papers? none of the children had ever gotten as high in the organization as james was at this time. and then all of a sudden he was humiliated. he s not taken action that could have killed it fairly early on, instead he s let it
all in all, he makes quite a decent fist of what he has to do in china, and that s really enough for him to be hired to run bskyb in britain. james murdoch is a smart young man. i hope he will do a good job. he should not have been put in at the age of 30. he should have had to prove himself first. james has done a great job. there s no one in europe who could do the job. james is elevated to the chairmanship of bskyb, the british broadcaster, a job that elizabeth herself had wanted a few years earlier and had been denied. elizabeth is never going to get the top job with her father. she decides she has to get out. but even the way she gets out is so in the style of her father. there s no conversation. she sends him a fax. against the advice of most of those closest to me and to the
rupert murdoch and his son james in london trying to find a way to put out the fire. it s been a bruising few days for the murdoch empire, but even tougher days lie ahead. are you a fit person to run bskyb? gentlemen, please, please. everyone is clamoring for resignations, in particular rebekah brooks. if rebekah brooks had a single shred of decency, she would now resign. hear, hear. murdoch is publicly backing her insisting she didn t know what was happening at the time that the hacking was taking place. i don t think any of them realized how violently it would all collapse. rupert murdoch get out! we know what you re all about! money, power, lies by the hour! here you had suddenly someone who had been the most powerful media magnate in the country finally realizing that the day had come when that power had