美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Ink' Goes Back In Time To Remember Murdoch Before He Was A Mogul

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Rupert Murdoch, the mogul who owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers and networks around the world, is, arguably, the most powerful man in media today. But in 1969, he was a hungry 38-year-old looking to break into London's newspaper establishment. As Jeff Lunden reports, a new play called "Ink" chronicles those years.

JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE¹: At the beginning of "Ink," Rupert Murdoch meets with an ambitious editor named Larry Lamb and asks him what makes a good story. Lamb answers with journalism's five basics - Who? What? When? Where? Why? But Lamb, played by Jonny Lee Miller², wants to ditch, why?

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JONNY LEE MILLER: (As Larry Lamb) Once you know why something happened, the story's over. It's dead. Don't answer why, and a story can run and run - can run forever. And the other reason, actually, honestly, I think is that there is no why most times. Why suggests that there's a plan, a point to things when they happen. And there's not. There's just not. Sometimes [expletive] just happens - only thing worth asking isn't, why? It's, what's next?

LUNDEN: What's next is the story of a failing British newspaper, The Sun, and its rebirth as a tabloid³ under Murdoch and Lamb. The play was written by James Graham.

JAMES GRAHAM: I wanted to do, like, an origin story to go back to the birth of what now feels like the predominant kind of tone to our news media, especially when you think of Fox News and social media and the Internet. It's very loud. It's very aggressive. It's very populist. And sometimes, it feels, I guess, quite dangerous.

LUNDEN: Murdoch already owned newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and wanted to crack the British market. But he found he wasn't welcome, says Bertie Carvel, who plays the future mogul.

BERTIE CARVEL: Ironically, really, given his beginnings from a wealthy and well-established Australian family, to come into the British society and be held as an outsider and sort of almost excluded from that establishment, I think that is probably key in terms of his kind of appetite to overturn and to disrupt.

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CARVEL: (As Rupert Murdoch) You know what I hear when I hear codes and traditions? I hear the rules as written by those who benefit from them to stop others from treading on their turf.

LUNDEN: He enlists⁴ editor Lamb, who assembles a staff of other establishment rejects, to take on the most popular paper in Britain. Playwright⁵ James Graham says The Daily Mirror was filled with highbrow conversations about art and politics.

GRAHAM: The Sun decided⁶ to be fun. It's cheeky. It's mischievous⁷. It's sometimes insulting. Everything is in all caps. Everything's screamed at you from the paper.

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CARVEL: (As Rupert Murdoch) I just want something...

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CARVEL: (As Rupert Murdoch) ...Loud.

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LUNDEN: And with the addition of salacious crime reporting and pictures of nude⁸ women on Page 3, The Sun became and remains⁹ the most widely read paper in England. It was highly influential¹⁰ in the Brexit vote. So when "Ink" premiered in liberal North London, Graham says the audience seemed taken by surprise at the play's sympathetic portrayal¹¹ of upstarts taking on the establishment.

GRAHAM: I would be thrilled in the interval¹² to see these people coming out sort of gray with shock that they'd accidentally found themselves rooting for Rupert Murdoch.

LUNDEN: Murdoch himself actually saw "Ink" in London and met the cast, says the play's Murdoch, Bertie Carvel.

CARVEL: Oh, it was very strange. We said very little to one another. I shook his hand. And I said, well, this is weird¹³. And he said, yes, it is. And we, more or less, left it at that (laughter).

GRAHAM: But, of course, you know, I don't want him to love it...

LUNDEN: Playwright James Graham.

GRAHAM: ...Because if he loves it too much, then I'm not doing my job. I wanted to prosecute¹⁴ him, but I also wanted to be fair.

LUNDEN: Still, the creators didn't want to preach to the converted, says director Rupert Goold.

RUPERT GOOLD: Its great function, it feels to me, is to get people into a room together, tell them stories that may not be normative to their own political position - ideally, to get people into the room together who may not even share the same position and say, look. We're all human here. We all have fun. We all get into trouble. We all have hopes and ambitions. And I do feel that's a really important thing to be doing at the moment.

LUNDEN: Which is one way to answer the fifth W - why?

For NPR News, I'm Jeff Lunden in New York.

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

3 tabloid   

adj.轰动性的，庸俗的；n.小报，文摘

参考例句：

• He launched into a verbal assault on tabloid journalism.他口头对小报新闻进行了抨击。
• He believes that the tabloid press has behaved disgracefully.他认为小报媒体的行为不太光彩。

4 enlists   

v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的第三人称单数 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• This method enlists the orchestration by creating its activation subscription. 此方法通过创建业务流程的激活订阅来登记业务流程。 来自互联网
• Party spirit enlists a man's virtue in the cause of his vice. 党派心使人的美德也为罪恶效劳。 来自互联网

5 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 mischievous   

adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的

参考例句：

• He is a mischievous but lovable boy.他是一个淘气但可爱的小孩。
• A mischievous cur must be tied short.恶狗必须拴得短。

8 nude   

adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品

参考例句：

• It's a painting of the Duchess of Alba in the nude.这是一幅阿尔巴公爵夫人的裸体肖像画。
• She doesn't like nude swimming.她不喜欢裸泳。

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

11 portrayal   

n.饰演；描画

参考例句：

• His novel is a vivid portrayal of life in a mining community.他的小说生动地描绘了矿区的生活。
• The portrayal of the characters in the novel is lifelike.该书中的人物写得有血有肉。

12 interval   

n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息

参考例句：

• The interval between the two trees measures 40 feet.这两棵树的间隔是40英尺。
• There was a long interval before he anwsered the telephone.隔了好久他才回了电话。

13 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

14 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？