Sunday, 13. May 2007, 20:48:28
ABC.net.auWhile ABC news online can find room for gossip, The Fairfax press can\'t fit in an extensively researched article on Rupert Murdoch\'s wife.
One of the few profiles on Wendi Deng was in the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal went on to report how young Wendi split Jake Cherry from his then wife, marrying him before dumping him for a younger man.
Rupert was said to have been most upset by the story.
So perhaps a few at the august Wall Street Journal would have felt a vague chill when they heard that Rupert now wants their paper.
But as the takeover bid was being launched, here in Australia, rumours were rife that Murdoch had exercised some influence over a profile of Deng by freelancer Eric Ellis.
Here\'s part of Ellis\'s story that you won\'t be reading in the Good Weekend magazine, because Fairfax - in which Rupert held a 7 and a half percent stake until today - has spiked it.
\"...A Star executive…remembers her interaction with…Robert Bland. Bland seemed to be going places, controlling a crucial revenue centre...The day after she\'d been introduced to him…he was walking down the corridor in front of Wendi\'s office. Laughs the executive, \"Wendi, this intern rushes out and grabs Bland\'s greasy ponytail...And she gives it a yank and says in this squeaky voice \'Hi Robert! I\'m Wendi! Remember me? I\'m the intern\', and she just cackles with this kiddie laugh \'Hahahahaha.\'\"
— \"Cheers to Wendi!!\" by Eric Ellis\"
It\'s not an especially friendly profile.
Eric Ellis presents a portrait of a young woman with stars in her eyes, spying opportunities, with not a lot of talent to back up her quest.
Fairfax\'s spiking of the Deng story is remarkable because it commissioned it, and it owes a lot of money for it.
More than a few suspected someone leant on the Good Weekend to leave Rupert and his family alone.
The decision to dump the story made news - at least in Britain where Rupert is dominant.
But here, the whispers led Age and Herald staff to demand an explanation.
\"Our concern is whether the decision to pull the story was made on editorial grounds alone, or whether it was provoked...by individuals at board level. The spiked...article has now achieved more notoriety...than it would have had it been published...
— Letter from the Age Independence Committee to Andrew Jaspan (Editor-in-chief of the Age), 3rd May, 2007\"
Well it was an odd decision.
Fairfax hasn\'t always been squeamish about \'Rupert and Wendi\' stories.
The Financial Review recently reported on the feud over the Murdoch family trust.
And alongside the news story, there was this.
\"Wendi\'s path from cultural revolution to wife of media mogul.
…She had met Jake Cherry, an American working for Guangzhou Engineering Factory, and his wife Joyce, who sponsored her to study in the United States. Jake Cherry divorced Joyce and married Deng in 1990. They divorced in 1992 and Deng completed an MBA at Yale…
— The Australian Financial Review, Wendi\'s path from cultural revolution to wife of media mogul, 24th-25th March, 2007\"
No offence taken then.
Perhaps the difference now came down to who knew the Good Weekend had commissioned a Wendi Deng profile.
Andrew Butcher knew. He\'s News Corporation\'s Senior Vice President for Corporate Communications in New York.
It\'s hard to believe that Murdoch\'s mates on the Fairfax board - Ron Walker and Mark Burrows - wouldn\'t have heard about this encounter with Butcher, long before Eric Ellis sent his story to Australia.
\"News Corp\'s public relations officer Andrew Butcher seems anxious. I email a request to interview Wendi, and Butcher responds \"Jesus...you\'re scaring the shit out of me with this serious letter. Please don\'t treat me like a corporate flak.\" He turns down the request on her behalf…She\'s not an executive at the company...and doesn\'t intend to become an executive. Her primary role is as a great mum to two cute kids.\"
— \"Cheers to Wendi!!\" by Eric Ellis\"
But Andrew Butcher told us, though he was aware that Ellis was writing about Wendi Deng, that...
\"Not only have I not raised concerns with anyone at Fairfax, I wasn\'t even aware that Eric Ellis had filed his story...I don\'t know why Good Weekend decided not to run the piece, but if the extracts that have been leaked...are any indication it\'s because the story was dull...Rupert has certainly not applied any pressure to anyone on this profile…To my mind, Rupert is no more sensitive of gossipy coverage of his wife than any other husband.
— Email from Andrew Butcher (Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, News Corporation) to Media Watch\"
Well that\'d be news to former Fairfax CEO Fred Hilmer.
\"When Rupert Murdoch wrote me a personal letter saying Fairfax coverage of his family was beneath contempt, I let a number of people see it.
— The Fairfax Experience, by Fred Hilmer, page 147\"
Good Weekend editor Judith Whelan has copped the flak for axing the Ellis story.
And was happy for management to tell staff...
\".. this was my decision and...it was based on editorial judgments. As always, those judgments are for me to make and I do not enter into public discussion about them
— Email from Judith Whelan (Editor, Good Weekend) to Fairfax staff\"
But combine Rupert\'s sensitivities, with Rupert\'s 7 and half per cent of Fairfax and you\'re guaranteed to get everyone talking - if you drop a story about Rupert\'s wife.
And baulking at publishing a story on the decision doesn\'t help.
The Age\'s Matthew Ricketson battled to get an article in The Age about the \"editorial\" decision.
When eventually he did - it was a straight down the line account of what management said had happened.
So was there board interference?
Did either Mark Burrows or Chairman Ron Walker lean on anyone to get the Ellis story killed?
Ron Walker tells us...
\"No, there\'s no truth at all in it. I\'m not prepared to discuss Fairfax\'s business with anyone. We pride ourselves on the independence of our newspapers. Okay?
— Statement from Ron Walker (Chairman, Fairfax Media) to Media Watch\"
Fairfax management has moved to assure all that nothing untoward happened.
\"Our editors make the editorial decisions, and we stand behind them and their integrity.
Neither the CEO nor the Board makes or overrules editorial decisions.
— Email from David Kirk (CEO, Fairfax Media) to Alan Oakley and Andrew Jaspan\"
Yet no-one has explained what \"editorial judgments\" led to a long running and expensive project suddenly being deemed unworthy of publication.
Surely it could have been saved with a bit of judicious editing.
But concerned Fairfax staff were forced to accept their management\'s line.
\"We welcome Mr Kirk\'s statement that neither he nor the board ``makes or overrules editorial decisions\'\', and Ms Whelan\'s assurance that the decision was hers and ``that it was based on editorial judgements\'\'.
— Statement from the Age Independence Committee, 4th May, 2007\"
Well let\'s face it, to have said otherwise would have been to cast doubt on the integrity of a colleague.
There are echoes in this episode of the controversial decision-making over Jonestown, here at the ABC last year.
Chris Masters\'s book was also \'commissioned\' and also \'dumped\'.
The ABC Board also found someone to cop the flak.
Picked up by an independent publisher, it\'s still in the best sellers list.
And Ellis - like Masters - might walk away with a smile on his face.
There\'s talk of book deals and the Monthly has bought the Deng profile for next month\'s edition.
That\'s it from me tonight. Thanks for your company.
And we\'ll see you in two weeks.
(It is the Transcripts from Episode 11, 2007. See the video and the original of the above quotes
here)
WIDGETIZE