Murdoch Picks Fight With Newser Founder

It won't surprise anyone that Rupert Murdoch managed to get his hands on an advance copy of Michael Wolff's upcoming biography of him, despite a strict embargo, or that he complained to the publisher over some of the contents. Murdoch gave Wolff more than 50 hours of interviews and access to everyone from his top execs to his 99-year-old mother, and he told them to be candid. The New York Times chronicles the ensuing brouhaha.

Wolff expresses confidence in his reporting—“It’s all from the horse’s mouth. And it’s all on tape." And he ventures to say that Murdoch's complaints had more to do with soothing the bruised egos of two of his execs—Wolff wrote some unflattering things about Murdoch's relationship with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes and Peter Chernin, the News Corp. president—than inaccuracies. The Vanity Fair columnist and Newser founder counters with his own complaint: “In essence News Corp. is holding stolen goods.”

(More Rupert Murdoch stories.)