Posted on 06/21/2002 7:24:33 PM PDT by GeneD
Rupert Murdoch has disappointed his rivals and potential successors by vowing to stay at the helm of his media empire until he is 100 years old.
The 70-year-old media mogul gave every impression of intending to carry on controlling News Corporation for at least another 30 years in a BBC2 documentary screened last night.
He proudly describes his heart as "perfect" and his cholesterol count as "zero", predicting that he will live to be 100 and reiterating his distaste at the idea of retirement.
"Retirement is something that was not on my radar screen and still isn't," says Mr Murdoch, describing the way that his marriage to his second wife, Anna, collapsed when she wanted him to cut back on his executive duties.
In an Australian documentary shown by BBC2 last night, Mr Murdoch is seen putting himself through a rigorous work-out including a near-comic session sparring with a boxing partner.
His eldest son, expected to take the top job at News Corporation when his father finally steps down, also hints that he doesn't expect him to give up the reins any time in the next 20 years.
"We're all striving to prove ourselves in those jobs and speculation about the fact that we must all be thinking about what might or might not happen in 20 or 30 years time is boring," says Lachlan, who works closely with his father in New York.
Mr Murdoch recently hinted in another interview that 30-year-old Lachlan's succession to the top job wasn't set in stone and that the running of the company might be more equally shared between him and his younger brother James, currently running Asian satellite network Star TV.
News Corporation has controlling stakes in a £30bn portfolio of media assets including SkyDigital, News International, Fox Television and 20th Century Fox. Collectively, Mr Murdoch's children are the largest shareholders in the company.
"I want them to be happy and be able to leave them great opportunities like my father left me. They don't have to but all the signs are they want it very much. I just hope they don't push me out too soon," Mr Murdoch laughs.
In the same documentary his mother reveals her shock when her son bought the News of the World. "It nearly killed me," she says. But he told her not to worry, "there are hundreds of thousands of people living in terrible conditions in London who have nothing in their lives basically and this is what they want."
Returning to his favourite theme - the English class system - Mr Murdoch says: "I'm not ashamed of any of my newspapers at all. I'm sick of snobs who tell us they're bad papers. Snobs who only read papers that no one else wants.
"I doubt if they read many papers at all. Whereas on most issues they consider themselves liberal radicals or something, they want to be imposing their taste on everybody else," adds the media tycoon.
The documentary also included rare interviews with Mr Murdoch's children including Prudence McLeod, his eldest daughter. She was the only one to speak candidly about her initial reaction to her father's third wife, Wendi Deng. "I couldn't believe it, actually. I just thought, you dirty old man," says Ms McLeod.
Rupert on his time at Oxford University:
"I was naturally very rebellious and that led me to join the Labour club. I had some great experiences going out in elections, door-knocking and so on, going to neighbourhoods and small towns in England. It was a very good exerience and led me to understand and have sympathy for people who were different to myself."
TRANSLATION: When it paid I sucked up to the left, and when it paid I sucked up to Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Clinton isn't the only conniver who's attended Oxford.
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