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Bottom of the pile
4
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
8/100Critics
1/100Scholars
Author:
Michael Wolff
Publisher:
Henry Holt and Co.
Date:
September 26, 2023
Meet the Murdochs and the disastrously dysfunctional family of Fox News. Until recently, they formed the most powerful media and political force in the land, for better or worse. Now their empire is cracking up and crashing down. For almost three decades, Fox News has not only made political careers (see: President Donald J. Trump) but also fundamentally altered the political landscape of the United States. It is a truism: as Fox goes, so goes the nationâinto further divisiveness and awash in fake news, a gleefully polarizing company. But just as Fox has pushed America apart, now it too is coming apart. As is the family dynasty behind it.
What The Reviewers Say
Riveting.
A prologue in the form of a deadpan mock obituary — by far the most sober and judicious stretch of pages in this cornucopia of innuendo and convoluted prose — sets up a headlong tumble through 18 months of uncertainty and upheaval at Fox News and among its custodians in the Murdoch family.
Wolff’s prediction that Murdoch’s death will signal 'the end of Fox News' is shaky, since his own book shows again and again how Fox succeeds not because of Rupert Murdoch but in spite of him.
I am for you, dear readers, that friend who reads a poor book about television on your behalf so you can pretend at dinner parties that you have read it. This book chronicles the recent history of Fox News and its relationship with the Murdoch family. An important subject. Without the support of Murdoch and Fox, there may well have been no President Trump. A good subject but not, sadly, a good book.
