http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/11/Murdoch-Clan-Met-with-Family-Therapist-to-Discuss-News-Corps-Future<snip>
New York, N.Y.— Vanity Fair contributing editor Sarah Ellison reports that “The
siblings had been in family counseling with a psychologist over the issue of succession” since before last February. “Rupert was seriously considering giving up his C.E.O. title and wanted Carey to ‘groom’ James for the job. Lachlan, Prudence, and Elisabeth had discussed the move extensively with James,” she writes. “They told James that if they worked together as siblings they could help him and their father have a better relationship, and that together the kids could hold Rupert to account to be a mentor to James and not undermine him.”
“Elisabeth blamed her brother for allowing the phone-hacking crisis to spiral out of control,” Ellison reports. She “approached her father and urged him to take control of the situation. She said Brooks and Hinton needed to resign, and that James needed to take a leave. Rupert was open to the idea—he and James had been at odds for months. Elisabeth had been urging her father to step in.” According to Ellison, James “had been shouldering the responsibility for something that happened before he was even in charge, he said. Everyone needed to pull together. Rupert summoned Brooks and told her she should take a leave. He called Hinton and asked him to come to London. Rupert then spoke to James and suggested that he take a leave—‘Maybe you should go, too,’ he said. But after a sleepless night he changed his mind.”
“That week, The Wall Street Journal had contacted Rupert to ask about rumors that James might step down as chairman of BSkyB in order to distance the company from the phone-hacking scandal,” writes Ellison of a phone call that demonstrates how poorly he and James were communicating at this crucial moment. “Without consulting his son, he returned the call and said that News Corp. had handled the crisis ‘extremely well in every way possible,’ making only ‘minor mistakes.’”
“It turns out,” Ellison writes, “that the two had agreed to talk to James about a ‘transcript of voice-mail messages’ that was devastating to News Corp.’s case. The e-mail doesn’t mention the name of the additional News of the World reporter implicated by the transcript, Neville Thurlbeck, nor does it say that phone hacking was widespread. Still, it adds credence to the notion that the men did tell Murdoch what they claim they told him. However, because the e-mail didn’t mention Thurlbeck by name, executives inside the company maintain that the e-mail supports James’s version of events.”
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