James Murdoch’s Daddy Puts Him on Board of Vice Media
It turns out that one point of launching an ostentatiously renegade bad-boy media company is so that one day it can be inherited by an upwardly failing scion. More than a year after resigning from his chairmanship at News International, Rupert Murdoch's son James has found a new position as director of at Vice Media, according to the London Evening-Standard.
The Williamsburg-based publishing empire, in which the Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox recently bought a 5% stake valued at $70 million, is known for publishing at least one of your friends, accidentally revealing where the fugitive software developer James McAfee was hiding, broing out with North Korean dictators, and assembling various excreta for its running “Gross Jars” feature.
The Evening-Standard says the 40-year-old Murdoch is taking the new role as part of rehabilitating his reputation—within his family’s business and also across the globe—as an irredeemable liar.
Recall: In 2011, two editors at the shuttered Murdoch tabloid News of the World called him out for lying before the British Parliament about his knowledge of the paper’s phone-hacking practices, which (along with hundreds of celebrities) allegedly targeted a dead 12-year-old girl. A former News International lawyer called him a liar, too. Several internal memos corroborated his and the editors’ accounts. In response, Murdoch called everyone else liars.
Keep the gross jars, James. Consider making one of your own, even. Your good name should be restored in no time at all.
Update: This post initially described Murdoch's new role at Vice Media as managerial. He has been named to the board of directors, but will not have an executive role.
