Tuesday 26 January 2010

Rupert Murdoch on 'kooky, kid' Rusbridger

Rupert Murdoch's biographer Michael Wolff has posted on Newser what Murdoch thinks of Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger (left) as the pair take up positions on opposite sides of the paywall.
Wolff writes: "As for Murdoch and Rusbridger, this is a curious juxtaposition. Rusbridger has become something of a digital autodidact; temperamentally old-school, he has nonetheless crossed over into the new world. Murdoch, on the other hand, has stubbornly, belligerently, and, in an increasingly agitated state, denied this world.
"In my many conversations with Murdoch, he would occasionally and with some anxious attention bring up Rusbridger, who can seem like a Delphic and mysterious character. Murdoch did not know quite what to make of Rusbridger and his Internet ambitions, seeing him as something quite different from a newspaper man, at least one in the Murdoch mold.
"He did not insult Rusbridger, as he does most of his competitors, but he didn’t quite regard him as someone he might ever want to be alone with either: “Kooky,” was his description. “And what’s with the way his hair falls in his face?” Murdoch asked once, scowling in his dark way, about Rusbridger’s bangs and mop-top. “How old is he? He looks like a kid.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really don't think Wolff is a credible source on this. He has ONE interest: that everything is for free so he can make a living on it.