Readers of this newspaper may feel fortunate that Rupert Murdoch owned it only briefly before selling it to its current proprietor. But the ways of the Murdoch media are very relevant to any discussion of the role of the press in open, capitalist and democratic societies. So this journalist has been lucky to be in England as the horror story of mobile phone hacking and other devious and illegal deals unfolded before a shocked public and politicians who at least pretended to be shocked.
First, though, a couple of good words for Murdoch. He has a genuine interest in newspapers, perhaps to the extent of failing until too late to recognise the impact of the internet. And he prolonged the profitable life of the newspaper industry in Britain and Australia by waging a successful war against trade unions protecting unneeded jobs and out-of-date technology. In that sense he was an important force for progress in print.
However, it must be said that Murdoch was always known as being interested in newspapers not as purveyors of facts, as journals of record or venues for debates but as sources of profit. Hence his preference is for anything that sells regardless of its accuracy. That was a trait that he inherited from his father, who gained fame as a correspondent in the first world war, whose articles were subsequently shown to have been highly inaccurate and prejudiced, and who then waged an unsuccessful newspaper campaign to discredit Australia's greatest soldier, General Sir John Monash, who was the son of German Jewish immigrants.
Rupert's preference was for a different form of sensationalism, mostly in tabloid form and practised most successfully in Britain with The Sun and the News of the World. Truth became ever less relevant, methods of getting stories ever more devious, if not actually illegal, and in some cases using threats of expos?s of their private lives to influence politicians. The word blackmail might not be inappropriate. The Australian, a national newspaper, was his only positive contribution to serious journalism.
Much of the focus on the private lives of celebrities was done in the name of 'the people's right to know'. But in the case of the Sunday Times, he changed a paper once esteemed for its investigation of important public issues into one more focused on exposing private lives of the rich or famous. The power of the Murdoch machine, however, prevented his own family being subject to the similar treatment by rival media.
The rivals followed Murdoch some way down the path of sensationalism and prejudice to the general detriment of newspapers - and of television, too, in the US, with Fox News, a channel that has single-handedly dramatically lowered the tone of American political debate. Doubtless, rivals in Britain will now be found to have resorted to many of the improper News Corp practices now being exposed.
His organs were just that little bit more ruthless, just as he himself would let his commercial interests over-ride his own views and personal inclinations. Hence he traded his Australian nationality for US citizenship and backed the election of Tony Blair's Labour government in Britain.